A Bunch of Chisame Shipping Fics
by Japanese Teeth
Summary: Exactly what it says on the tin.  A compilation of brief shipping stories involving Chisame.  There will be yuri.
1. Negi, Yue, Chachamaru

I do not own any of these characters, etc. , although that should be fairly obvious given this is hosted on a **fan**fiction website. But I digress. Onward with the story.

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**A Bunch of Chisame Shipping Fics.**

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**Chapter 1:1 Chisame and Negi (and negi)**

When Chisame entered the bedroom, everything seemed the same as it always was. Except for a suspiciously long, thing package lying on the bed. She called into the bathroom.

"Negi, what the heck is this thing, and why is it on the bed?" Negi's voice echoed from behind the door.

"That's a welsh onion. Chizuru-san brought it over earlier. Thought we might want it."

"That's only half an answer. Why is it on the bed? Shouldn't you leave it in the kitchen or something?" There was a pause. Not at all reassuring. The silence carried a hint of awkwardness. Not nearly as awkward as the silence had been on that morning when they had woken up in the same bed for the first time, but more awkward than when Chisame had walked in on her teacher in the shower. "Well!"

"It's...uh...not for eating..."

"What do mean 'not for eating'? What else could it-" Something clicked in the back of her mind. Her subconscious had gotten around to scouring out the relevant words in Negi's explanation: "Chizuru" and "onion". She recalled, for the first time in a while, a conversation with Natsumi concerning why the latter had a mild phobia of leeks. The explanation had involved Chizuru. "Negi, please tell me that this isn't for what I think it's for."

More silence. So it is for that, then. He sheepishly opened the door.

"She...uh...though that you might...um...you know...that it would add...some...uh..." He withered under her glare.

"And you actually though that I would want to do that?"

"Well, I figured that, you know, since we...uh...it's always the same..." She glared even harder. Daggers. "Uh, not that it's bad...it's really good, but... maybe we could...try something a little different." He scratched the back of his head. She was now glaring swords at him rather than daggers. It wasn't working. He was too damn earnest. Chisame turned her gaze to the package on the bed.

"Okay, fine." She grumbled it out as much as possible to kill any chance that he might try this again. She looked back at him. He was obviously trying not to smile. "Okay." She muttered, as she began to peel away her clothes. "Let's get this over with."

** (DATA REDACTED IN THE INTEREST OF KEEPING THIS EVEN VAGUELY WORKSAFE) **

Chisame faced the wall, holding the sheets against her naked chest, trying and failing to calm her heartbeat enough to get to sleep. Negi was curled up on the other side of the bed, sleeping soundly. Chisame was still wide awake, thoughts racing. _I can't believe I just did that. A friggin' onion._ She tried to think of something else. Maybe about how she should update her website. Then thoughts of her fanboys flooded her brain. _What would they think if they knew about what happened! That Chiu-chan stuck an onion up her-_ Negi rolled over in his sleep. _What the hell was I thinking!_ She clamped her eyes shut. _How did I let this happen?_ Her heart started racing again. _How could I let myself enjoy it! _

_Damn onion._

She rolled over, seeking a better position. She found herself face to face with Negi. What a cute kid. Too cute, damn it. The last thing she thought before sleep took her was whether she should punch Chizuru or thank her. _Or maybe ask her to drop off another onion..._

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**Chapter 1.2: Chisame and Yue**

Chisame blinked as the light of the sunrise filtered through the window and hit her eyes. _Should've closed the blinds last night. Oh well. _She rolled over and found herself staring at Yue's forehead. The short girl made a sleepy groan, and shifted a little in the bed. The sheet had fallen off of her at some point during the night, exposing her naked back to the cold morning air. She clutched her chest, and curled up slightly, shivering.

Chisame let out a satisfied sigh. She reached across the sleeping girl and pulled the sheet up to Yue's shoulders. She wrapped her arm around Yue's back and gently drew her closer. The sleeping girl nestled into Chisame's chest as Chisame rested her check on Yue's forehead. The shivering had stopped.

_How did I end up here?_ Chisame reached over with her other hand and began twiddling with Yue's hair. Two days ago, she never would have guessed that she'd be sharing a bed with "forehead girl". But now that she was here, she couldn't complain.

Yue started to stir. Like Chisame, she blinked in response to the morning sun.

"Huh?" She tried to register what was going on. As the morning haziness left her eyes, Chisame's face began to come into focus. "Whuh?"

"Morning!" Chisame smiled. "Have a good night?"

"So..last night..." Yue rubbed her eyes as she sat up. "It..it really...happened..."

"Did it ever." Chisame patted the top of Yue's head. Yue blushed slightly and looked away. "Oh, don't be like that. Didn't you enjoy my company?"

"Y-yes..." Her face flushed even more. "Of course. It's just that...I didn't think that something like this would happen..."

Chisame put her hand on top of Yue's.

"Neither did I." She pressed her lips against her bedmate's forehead. "But I'm glad that it did."

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**Chapter 1.3: Chisame and Chachamaru**

"You have got to be kidding me!" Chisame banged her head on the table. "I went through so much crap during the festival because of you! So much! I was freaking wading through mounds of crap! I climbed the freaking crap mountains, dammit! Enough to fertilize all the farms in the world. All of them!"

Chachamaru tried to maintain her stoic demeanor as she sat on the couch, watching Chisame flail madly.

"Chisame, I believe that your metaphor is obscuring rather than emphasizing your point."

"Shut up!" Chisame stared at the robot girl, red faced. "You don't get it! I busted my ass trying to fight you during the tournament, and now you're telling me that you were just messing with me the whole time! I thought that I had at least put up a decent fight!"

The robot shifted in her seat. In the months since the tournament, she had visited Chisame like this a number of times. Chisame had come to enjoy Chachamaru's visits; there was no one else on campus who was on Chisame's level when it came to computers. It had been nice to finally discuss the subject with someone who was on her own level.

But now all of that was in jeopardy. Chachamaru had been describing a sort of self-propagating program when she had said precisely the wrong thing, namely that the simplicity of the program in question had made it simple for her to hold Chisame at bay during the Mahorafest Cyberwar.

"I thought you were already aware..." Chachamaru tried not to meet Chisame's eyes. "I did not mean to impugn your abilities. I had a distinct advantage due to my ability to interface directly with the system, and furthermore-"

"Just stop, okay!" Chisame finally settled into her chair and held her head in her hands. "I get it. You were better than me. I just thought that I had actually accomplished something, that's all..." She took a deep breath.

"But you did accomplish something. You successfully circumvented my security set up."

"That doesn't matter! It's the fact that you weren't even trying." She gritted her teeth. "Do you know how humiliating it is to put your all into something only to find out that you only won because your opponent wasn't paying attention!"

Chachamaru was silent. She hadn't been in that position before. Chisame took a few deep breaths before launching back into her tirade.

"I thought I was useful! I thought that I had actually done something to help! I thought I had accomplished something!" He voice dropped to a near whisper. "But I guess it turns out that I was just lucky. But the worst part..." She finally took her hands away from her face. Tears were starting to gather at the corners of her eyes. "Do you know what I did to beat you?"

Chachamaru shook her head.

"I had to make a pactio with that boy." Her fists were clenched. "That was the worst. To have even the smallest chance of doing anything, I had to kiss him. My first kiss. My first kiss!" She slammed her fist on the table. "I wasted my first kiss to have a shot at beating you. I should have saved it. Saved it for someone special. Someone that I actually loved! But no..." The tears in the corners of her eyes began to drip down her cheeks. "I sacrificed it. I sacrificed it to fight you, and now you're telling me that _you weren't even trying!_"

"Chisame..." Chachamaru searched her memory banks for something, anything to say . Understanding her own emotions was difficult enough. But even so, all she could think about was finding some way to stop the tears that were flowing down her friend's face. "I...I am sorry. I did not realize that you...that you gave up so much... I should have told you at the beginning..."

"You...just don't get it..." Chisame's fists started trembling. "You don't know...just how much I had to give up." She lifted her head and looked Chachamaru straight in the eyes. "You can't understand..." Chachamaru felt as if she were frozen, paralyzed by Chisame's gaze. She forced her mouth to start speaking again.

"I know that I cannot understand. I have difficulty comprehending my own emotions. I only wish that I would have some way of knowing how you feel..."

Chisame's stared into Chachamaru's eyes. She wanted to be angry. She wanted to be able to scream her head off. She wanted to unload all of her frustration, stress, and pain on the robot girl sitting on her couch. But she couldn't. The robot's eyes seemed more glassy than usual; they had more shine. They looked human. And they looked like they were about to cry.

"You want...you want to understand?" Chisame tried to breathe slowly. "Fine."

She suddenly stepped forward, wrapped her arms around the robot girl and pressed her lips against Chachamaru's. The sudden momentum caused both girls to tip sideways onto the couch. Chisame lay on top her friend, eyes clamped shut. _Now she'll get it. She has to..._

Chachamaru lay on the couch, stunned. Chisame's body was so close to hers that she could feel the girl's ever-quickening heartbeat. From the moment Chisame's lips had touched hers, she felt a heat spreading through her body, a rush of sensation flowing through her artificial veins. Time seemed to stop for a moment.

Chisame pushed herself back into a sitting position.

"There. You made me waste my first kiss, so now I took yours. We're even." She stood up and resolutely walked back to her chair.

Chachamaru slowly lifted herself off the couch. Every joint in her body seemed to be shaky and unstable. She almost feel the heat coming off of her face.

"Chisame..."

"So is next week at the same time good for you?" Chisame tried her best to sound completely normal, but her voice wavered.

"W..what do you mean?"

"Well, now that we've resolved this little incident, there's no reason that we should stop meeting." Chisame pushed her glasses up the bridge of her nose. Her cheeks were still more than a little rosy. Her mouth curved slightly into a smile. "I accept your apology. I realize that you didn't realize how I felt. All is forgiven."

"Th..thank you." Chachamaru bowed. "Next week at this time should be fine. I will let you know if anything comes up." She stood up. "I should probably be going."

"You're probably right." Chisame coughed. "Things got a little intense. I need to cool down a little."

"I will see you in class. Goodbye." Chachamaru bowed again and walked to the door. As she opened it, Chisame waved.

"You too. Bye." The door clicked shut.

As she left the dormitory to begin the walk back to Eva's cottage, Chachamaru reached up and pressed her fingers to her mouth. Her lips were still warm.

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So yeah, I think this story kinda speaks for itself. I'm starting off with Negi and the rest of 3-A, and if I still feel like writing these after I run out of classmates, I'll start using other characters.

Something to keep in mind: The individual sections are all in their own continuities, but multiple sections involving the same characters are part of the same continuity. For example, the **Chisame and Yue** section is not in the same continuity as the **Chisame and Chachamaru **section. But if I write another section involving Chachamaru it'll be a continuation of the first Chachamaru section. Hopefully this isn't _too_ confusing (although my explanation probably didn't help any).

Finally some explanations:

1.1: The "(and negi)" bit in the first section is sort of a Japanese pun; the Japanese word for "welsh onion" is "negi". And yes, that section of the fic was written partially because of that pun. The other inspiration for that section was Overmaster's "More than Fifty-Four Negi and Chisame Threesomes" (which can found on this site and is hilarious; go read it). I was active on the forum where he initially began posting the threesome ideas, so I wrote this as a joke. He thought it was funny, so I have preserved it for posterity as part of this compilation.

1.2: I think this section is kinda generic when compared to the other two; I'll try to remedy that if I write a followup Yue/Chisame section.

1.3: I surprised myself when I wrote this; It was originally going to be much more humorous, but ended up being really emotional. In a good way, I think. Later installments will probably be a bit more joke-y.

Final comments: I'm aware that the title sucks. I'm bad at coming up with titles for stuff like this. :P

Please review; feedback is always appreciated.


	2. Chao, Zazie, Fumika

Blah blah blah disclaimers Blah blah blah I do not own characters blah blah they are blah blah blah owned by their blah blah creators blah

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**Chapter 2**

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**Chapter 2.1: Chisame and Chao**

"Chisame..." Chao called from the bed in the most suggestive voice that she could muster. "Aren't you going to come to bed...?"

"I'll be there in a minute, okay!" Her voice was muffled as it came through the door, but the irritation was still plain. "Do I really have to wear this?"

"Of course." Chao rolled onto her side, putting her palm to her cheek and leaning on her elbow. She slowly began to rub her legs together. Hopefully Chisame would find the pose as alluring as Chao believed it was. _Of course she will... I've always known the best way to do things..._ She licked her lips in expectation. "Hurry up, Chisame! I'm starting to get cold."

"Okay, fine!" Chisame kicked the door open and stomped into the room, clad in lingerie that somehow managed to cover absolutely nothing, despite being made out of frills, lace, and several dozen clasps and hooks. "Dammit Chao, I don't know why you insist on making me wear this ridiculous...uh..out..fit..." She trailed off as she saw Chao giving her a look dripping with so much lasciviousness that it was hard for her to think of anything else.

_That's it...come closer..._ She had spent hours trying to perfect that expression. Figuring out that perfect blend of emotions had been a tremendous pain. Finding the right amount of prurient, carnal, sensuality and balancing it with subtle eroticism and pure affection. Chisame took another step towards the bed. Chao could feel her heart pounding in her chest. _Just a little closer...just a little, and I'll finally be able to touch you..._

This was not Chao's area of expertise. Desire wasn't a science, it was aesthetics. Normally, Chao wouldn't touch aesthetics with a 3.2004 meter pole. But something was driving her. Chisame had first come to her attention during the tournament. The hacker had been mucking around with her information dispersal system during the tournament, so Chao had begun surveillance on the girl. And at some point during her review of all of the footage, she had noticed an odd sensation in the back of her mind. That sensation nearly drove her insane.

_I must be crazy..._She had never though that she would find herself splayed out on a bed, wearing lingerie so sparse that she would have felt less exposed wearing nothing at all. It made no sense. Why were the ever present pink blushes on her cheeks spreading across her face as Chisame began to crawl onto the bed? Why had she sacrificed hours and hours for this girl?

"Okay, Chao. I'm here." Chao found herself staring into Chisame's eyes. "What...what would you like to do?"

For the first time in her life, Chao found herself at a loss for words. _Why did I do this? Why did I spend so much time getting to know this girl? She's an enemy! _She started to shiver as Chisame pressed a hand to her shoulder. _Why am I losing it! There's no logical reason for me to be here! Why did I do all of this! _

"Chao?"

_Why...why do I love her?_

"Chisame..." Chao could feel the tears welling up. _No...I can't cry...I'm a scientist. I sold my soul to science! How could I let myself do this? _"I..." The words were sticking in her throat. _How can one phrase be so difficult...But I...I have to say it..._ "I..."

"You what?" Chisame's stare bored into Chao's eyes. "Just say it."

"I...I love you..."

"W...what?"

The world ground to a halt. _What the hell did I just do! _Chao's mind imploded on itself. _Love...science...Chisame...all this time...wasted...but I love her...emotions...stupid...how could I? Why did I...love...now what? I don't know...I don't know what to do! _She clamped her eyes shut to keep the tears from leaking out.

She inhaled sharply as she felt a warm touch on her cheek. She opened her eyes to see Chisame holding a trembling hand to her face.

"Chao..."

The Chinese girl could feel a lump growing in her throat. _I...I ruined everything... _She started to turn away. Chisame put her other hand against Chao's face, gently turning her head so that they were face to face. Her lips curved into a smile.

"I already knew that..."

Chisame softly pulled Chao's face closer. Their lips met, and they were lost in a brilliant glow.

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**Chapter 2.2: Chisame and Fumika**

"Are we almost there?" Chisame stopped to take a deep breath. Her diminutive companion took hold of her arm and started tugging.

"Come on, Chisame!" Fumika started to tow Chisame further along the path towards the World Tree. "I really want to show you! It'll be dark soon!"

"Okay, okay..." Chisame staggered onward, wondering how the girl she was following managed to store so much energy in her little body.

"We have to climb a little bit here..." Fumika started scampering up a section of the gnarled trunk. "Sorry about that. It isn't far, though."

"What? I don't want to climb!" Chisame stamped her foot. "You said you wanted to go on a walk, not tree climbing!"

"Pleeeaaasseeee?" The small girl looked down from the branch she was standing on. Her eyes seemed to have doubled in size, and her lip was quivering. "I just really wanted you to see this...I thought you would like it..."

"Alright, alright!" She started to crawl up the side of the tree. "Just stop doing that puppy dog eyes thing!"

"Come on, you'll miss it!" Fumika wrung her hand anxiously as she hopped from foot to foot.

"Ugggghhhh..." Chisame dragged herself onto the branch and slumped against the tree trunk. Fumika seized her hand and began trying to yank her into a standing position.

"Look!" Fumika pointed excitedly.

Chisame groaned as she forced herself upright. "This had better be spectacular after all the..." She stopped at the sight of the sunset pouring its golden light across Mahora's campus. "Wow..." The entire landscape burned with a bright glow.

"I knew you'd like it!" Fumika clapped her hands together. "It's beautiful, isn't it?"

"Yeah..." Chisame leaned against the trunk. "I guess I should thank you for hauling me up here..."

"You're welcome." Fumika looked down and started nervously twiddling her fingers. "You know...there are a lot of legends about this tree..."

"I bet there are."

"Well...one of them is that if you confess your love for someone under this tree, they'll fall in love with you."

"Really." Chisame continued to survey the campus. "That's nice."

"Yeah..." Fumika stared at her shoes. "Um...Chisame?"

"Huh?" She turned to face the young looking girl.

"I'm really happy that you like the view..." She shuffled her feet. "..but that's not the only reason I wanted you to come up here."

"What do you mean?"

"Well, the truth is..." Fumika swallowed and clenched her fists. "I like you!"

"Huh?" Chisame stared blankly.

"I mean, I really like you!" Fumika began twiddling her fingers again. "I know that it's kinda weird, because I just look like a little kid, but-"

"AHA!" Fumika was interrupted by her sister's rapid descent out of the branches above. As she dropped, her foot caught on a tree limb, spinning her around in the air. She landed with a splat on the wide branch where Fumika and Chisame were standing. She lay still for a few seconds.

"Are you alright!" Chisame started to take a step toward the prone girl, but she jumped to her feet and thrust her hand into the air.

"Fine! Never better!" She winced and put a hand to her side. "Owww..." She straightened up and pointed a finger at her sister. "I knew that you were going to confess to her!"

"You ruined the moment!" Fumika started spinning her arms at her sister. "It was supposed to be all romantic, and you screwed it up!"

"You're the one who was sneaking around my back to confess to her!" Fuuka retorted. "When was I supposed to get my chance!"

"Shut up!" Fumika charged forward and in a matter of seconds, the twins were engaged in a full-on catfight. "I confessed to her first!"

"So what? I like Chisame too! You can't have her all to yourself!"

"Nyaaaahhhhh!"

Chisame watched dumbfounded as the twins flailed their arms at each other. If they kept this up, one of them might fall off of the branch. At this height, there was a real chance of serious injury.

"Girls..." She started waving her arms at them. "Stop it! Come on, you don't want to get hurt!"

The twins stopped smacking at each other and turned to look at her.

"But we both want to be with you..." Fumika kicked at a knot on the branch.

"Yeah! I like you too!" Fuuka pointed at Chisame. "Why don't you pick one of us then?"

"Yeah, which one of us do you like more!" Both of the twins stared intently at her. She could see the nervousness in their faces.

"I...uh..." They slowly pressed in closer. "I don't know! I can't choose."

"Oh." Fuuka scratched her head for a second. "Oh well! I guess that means we'll have to share, then!"

"Alright!" Fumika rushed forward and wrapped her arms around Chisame's waist. Fuuka immediately followed, embracing the girl from the other side. They spoke together.

"We love you, Chisame!" They began to nuzzle their faces against her stomach.

"Uh, girls..." Chisame tried to move, but could not dislodge them. "Uh, it's going to get dark soon...we should probably head down..."

"Oh, it'll be fine." Fuuka held on tight.

"I don't know, maybe she's right." Fumika's grip relaxed a little. "It might be dangerous climbing down in the dark."

"That's right." Chisame made another attempt to pry them off. "I really should get down. We could...uh...go back to my room for some snacks..."

"Awesome!" Fuuka took a step back. "Let's go to Chisame's room!"

"Yay!" Fumika threw her hands in the air, and both girls clamored down the trunk. Chisame put a hand to her forehead as she watched the girls bouncing along the path toward the dorms. She muttered into the air.

"What have I gotten myself into?"

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**Chapter 2.3: Chisame and Zazie**

_What the hell? Seriously, what the hell is going on here? _ Chisame had been sleeping perfectly soundly when the shuttering of her bed shook her into a state of wakefulness. She had nearly screamed at the sight of a dark form crawling onto her bed. As she scrambled for her pactio card with one hand, she used to the other to flip the light on. As the room was illuminated, Chisame found herself staring at Zazie Rainyday.

"Z...Zazie! What are you doing here?"

The mysterious girl pointed at the bed.

"sleep" She started rubbing her hands together

"You came in here to sleep?" Chisame looked at her through half-closed eyes. "Why don't you sleep in your own room?"

"...dreams" The dark-skinned girl looked down at her hands.

"What?" Chisame blinked. _What the hell is that supposed to mean? _She squinted as she looked at the clock. 2:34 a.m. "Okay, you know what? Fine. You can sleep in Hakase's bed." She pointed to the bunk on the other side of the room. "She's never here anyway. Just try not to wake me up."

Zazie's stoic expression seemed to droop slightly, but she nodded and slowly made her way across the room to the other bed. She wrapped herself in Hakase's old neglected sheets, and curled up in the blankets.

Chisame flipped the light off and rolled over in her bed. _Of all people to randomly show up. We've never even spoken before!_ _This is just ridiculous..._ Under normal circumstances she would have kicked the girl out of her room, but right now she was too tired to care. She closed her eyes and the world faded around her.

Chisame squinted her eyes as she tried to read the clock. 3:09 a.m. _Good, I don't have to get up yet..._As she adjusted her position, she could make out a faint sound in the quiet. _What is that..?_ Her fatigued brain spun for a few seconds before recalling that Zazie was still presumably still in the other bed. _I should have known this would be a problem..._

She fumbled around on her nightstand for her glasses, and slowly pried herself out of the covers. With a shiver, she slowly began to cross the room, feeling around with her toes to avoid all the random machine parts that Hakase always left everywhere. As she neared the bed, she began to make out Zazie's form in the darkness.

Zazie had scrunched herself into a tight ball, hugging her pillow to her chest, burying her face in it. Even through the thick down of the pillow, Chisame could make out a muffled whimper. As she stepped closer, Zazie's body trembled, and she let out a soft cry into the sheets.

_So that's what she meant by "dreams"..._ Chisame lowered herself slowly onto the edge of the bed, and cautiously reached out toward the sleeping girl. As her hand touched Zazie's, the trembling stopped. Chisame took a deep breath, reached out her other hand, and began gently massaging the sleeper's back. Zazie slowly began to uncurl. As she stretched, she put one of her hands directly into the mess of computer parts on Hakase's nightstand.

There was a clatter as the debris fell to the floor. Zazie suddenly snatched the blanket and huddled herself in the corner of the bed, looking warily around the room. She relaxed once again as she saw Chisame sitting on the edge of the bed.

"Nightmares? Is that why you came down here?"

Zazie nodded silently.

"And you thought that if I was with you, you'd be able to sleep better?"

She nodded again. Chisame couldn't quite make it out in the darkness, but she was pretty sure that Zazie was blushing. _What am I supposed to do now?_ She looked at the enigmatic girl sitting at the far end of the bed, hugging her blankets like a frightened child.

"Alright, I'll let you get in bed with me, if it'll help you stop rolling around so much."

She stood up and strode back to her own bed. As she turned back, she could see Zazie following slowly behind her with shaky legs. Chisame tossed her glasses back on the end table as Zazie began to slide herself under the sheets.

"Hurry up, I want to get _some_ sleep tonight." Zazie eased herself next to Chisame, nestling her head against Chisame's chest, wrapping an arm around her. Chisame opened her mouth to protest, but stopped. She pressed a hand to Zazie's back. It was nearly damp with a cold sweat. _I can't believe that of all people, this girl would have trouble with nightmares... _She sighed and closed her eyes.

"chisame?" Zazie's voice floated out of the darkness.

"Yeah? What is it?"

"thank you"

Chisame wrapped her arm a bit further around her bedmate. It was the least she could do. She began to drift off, lulled to sleep by Zazie's warmth.

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**Chapter 2.4: Chisame and Chao 2**

Chisame and Chao both stared at the the source of the flash, trying to look around the floating black spots that now dominated their vision.

As their eyes finally recovered from the light, Chisame and Chao found themselves staring at another Chao. From one hand hung a Cassiopeia on a length of cord. This Chao was wearing the same the undergarment as the first Chao, but it was much more disheveled; only about a third of it was still covering the places that it was supposed to. The rest of it hung loosely, barely attached by its numerous clasps and hooks.

"What the hell is going on!" Chisame pointed at the new arrival. "Who are you!"

"Oh, me?" The second Chao scratched her head and giggled. Her hair buns were completely loosed, releasing a cascade of dark hair that flowed down her neck, almost reaching her chest, which was heaving gently with every breath. Her body glistened with sweat. "I'm from the future. Not the far future. Just an hour or so."

"W..what?" Chisame stared dubiously.

"Well, I enjoyed the...uh... experience so much that I thought I'd do it again." She turned and smiled at the present Chao. "Yeah I know, you still don't understand how or why you feel like this. And as much as I hate to admit it, I still don't get it. But..." She took a deep breath. "..I don't care. If you really want to enjoy this, to enjoy _her..._" She pointed at Chisame. "...don't bother asking why you love her. Just love her."

Future Chao turned to Chisame. "I had a hard time with it before, but I just want to say it clearly, and without hesitation: I love you. I don't know why I love you, but I do." She stretched and began to climb onto the bed. She turned to the present Chao. "You're ready, aren't you?"

"Y..yes.." She nodded nervously.

"What about you?"

Chisame nodded, blushing so red that she was practically glowing. She reached out nervously and wrapped her arms around the present Chao, trailing her fingertips across the girl's back. Her voice wavered a little as she spoke.

"Well, I kissed you...are you going to kiss me or not?"

The present Chao put a hand to Chisame's face. _Maybe I can't answer every question..._ She thrust herself forward, wrapping her arms around the hacker girl. Their lips met. _But this is a question that I can.

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Whoo yeah, part 2 is done.

2.1: I'm not sure exactly why I settled on Chao for this section, but in any case it was fun to get inside her head as she tried to reconcile her "purely rational scientist" side with her emotions. It was also interesting to tell the story from the other character's point of view rather than Chisame's.

2.2: The reason that I used Fumika for this section is because I used a random number generator to select which character to use. I wasn't sure about whether I wanted to incorporate both of the twins into the story; they're always together in the manga, but I felt like I wanted to make them more individualized. In the end, I just split the difference; Fumika gets a few moments on her own, and gets gatecrashed by her sister. I think it fits the characterization fairly well. The basic idea is obviously inspired by chapter 13 of the manga, only with one girl for most of the time, and Chisame instead of Negi.

2.3: Okay, for some reason any time the subject of a Chisame/Zazie pairing comes up, I have always imagined it starting with Zazie inexplicably trying to sneak into Chisame's bed. I have no idea why I always thought of it that way, but it made writing this section a bit easier. I also liked the irony of the idea that the most explicitly enigmatic girl in 3-A would have such a childlike and mundane problem to deal with. I have no idea why she settled on Chisame, but that isn't important.

2.4: This is a direct continuation of 2.1. I split them like this because the first half of the story was so emotionally driven that immediately switching from that to "Chao's future self appears, ready to get some action" would cause a bit too much emotional whiplash. At the same time, I liked the idea too much to throw it away, so I just split the story at an appropriate juncture and used it as bookends to this chapter.

Reviews are welcome; I always need feedback and suggestions for improvement. Also, I'm open to suggestions of who to include in the next chapter, so if you have any requests, feel free to put that in the review as well.

I don't know when the next chapter will be out; I'm focusing on another story after this and I'm getting a decent load of coursework this week, but hopefully it won't be too long.


	3. Natsumi, Hakase, Setsuna

**Chapter 3**

**

* * *

**

**Chapter 3.1: Chisame and Natsumi**

"How about this one?" Natsumi held up a dress.

"Too frilly." Chisame gave the redhead a thumbs down. "If I wanted to go Gothloli I'd just get clothes from Evangeline."

"This one?" She held up a biker-style leather corset and miniskirt.

"Nah. I just did a biker-themed photoshoot last week." She shuttered. "Last time I ever as Haruna for help..."

"Okaaaay..." Natsumi tossed the outfit onto the ever-growing pile of rejected costumes and continued to rummage around the clothing racks. "Do you have any idea of what you're looking for?"

"Nope." Chisame shrugged. "I couldn't think of any more ideas. That's why I needed your help. I thought maybe the theater department would have something I hadn't thought of yet."

"Oh, I'm sure there's something in here somewhere." Natsumi let out a frustrated groan into the rows of costumes. She wasn't supposed to be in the wardrobe storage at all, but as a favor to Chisame she had used her position in the drama club to get the key to the club room. Her assumption had been that they would sneak in, grab something, and abscond. But now they had been in the room for almost an hour, and there were a good two dozen reject costumes sitting in a heap in the corner. One missing costume would get written up as an inventory error, but if someone found a mess like this, somebody was going to get in trouble.

"Find anything yet?" Chisame's voice echoed from the other end of the room. Natsumi's eye twitched. She grabbed a random hanger off the rack and spun around to face Chisame.

"How about this?"

"Are you kidding!" Chisame gaped at the outfit Natsumi was holding. The redhead turned to see what it was that she was holding.

"Oh..." On the hanger dangled what could charitably be called a set of bra and panties. The bra had a sheer silken material draped underneath, and the panties likewise seemed to have a transparent skirt hanging from the edges. What threw the "bra and panties" definition into doubt was the fact that the non-transparent part of the getup consisted of maybe half a dozen square inches of fabric. Each so-called "cup" of the bra was a dark green fabric cut in the shape of a leaf. Similarly, the only part of the panties that wasn't a thin strip of elastic was another small leaf-shaped section of fabric.

"Why they hell does the theater department even have that!" Chisame pointed at the costume indignantly. "Were they planning on putting on a burlesque act or something?"

"I...uh..." Natsumi honestly had no idea why such a risque piece of clothing was in the wardrobe. "I'm not sure..."

"I'm not wearing that!"

"Oh come on, Chisame..." Natsumi giggled at Chisame's. "I think it would look good on you!"

"Are you serious! I can't do a photoshoot in that thing!" She put a hand to her forehead. "I'm a net idol, not a cam whore!"

"But it would be really sexy!" Natumi grabbed a pair of fake antennae off of a nearby shelf. "You could do like a wood nymph set of pictures or something!" She took that antenna hairband and stuck in on Chisame's head.

"Listen, I'm not going to wear that thing. Thousands of people look at my pictures every day..." Her face reddened slightly. "I wouldn't want people to see me dressed like that. I mean, how would you like it if you had to go on stage with that thing on."

Natsumi looked at the costume in her hand, and then down at her body. She patted her chest with her other hand. "I couldn't, I don't have the boobs for this outfit."

"You know what I mean."

"Yeah, I guess that would be pretty embarrassing." Natsumi sat down on the bench next to Chisame. "But getting up on stage like that would be more embarrassing than doing it on the internet. I mean, it's not like everyone on campus would recognize _you._"

"I know. And I want to keep it that way." Chisame sighed.

"I don't get it..." Natsumi gazed into space.

"Don't get what?"

"If you don't want any attention, why do you put so much effort into being a net idol?"

"You know..." Chisame leaned back. "Sometimes I wonder that myself. I guess I just like knowing that all those guys out there think I'm cute. It's stupid." Natsumi stifled a laugh. "What?"

"So you _do_ like the attention."

"What!" Chisame's cheeks were starting to redden. "No, it's just...uh...not like that!"

"Don't be so embarrassed!" Natsumi put a hand on Chisame's shoulder. "There's nothing wrong with wanting people to like you..."

"I know that. I just like being normal most of the time. Blending into the background, you know?"

"I figured." It was Natsumi's turn to sigh. "I wish I enjoyed being a wallflower as much as you do. Sometimes I just wish I _would_ get noticed."

"Really?"

"Yeah, that's why I joined the drama club." Natsumi looked at the floor. "I figured that maybe I'd get lucky and get a lead role. Then people would see me and go 'Hey, it's that girl from the play!' Maybe eventually I'll actually get to do that... Maybe next year..."

There were a few moments of silence before Chisame answered.

"So what part are you playing now?"

"Chorus Member #3." She groaned. "I just wish that somebody would notice me..."

"Well..." Chisame put her arm around the redhead's shoulder. "I noticed you. That's a start, right?"

"Yeah, I guess..." She looked up at Chisame. "Can we get out of here? I'd rather not lose my chance at getting my chance at stardom because I messed up the club room."

"I guess you're right..." Chisame stood up. "I'd hate to ruin everything for you. I think we're done here anyway." She grabbed one of the costumes out of the pile on the floor and hung it on a nearby rack.

"Do you mean that you'll wear the costume!" Natsumi grinned widely, holding up the "leaf-kini".

"No."

Natsumi's face fell.

"Pleeeaase?"

"Okay, fine!" Chisame snatched it out of her hand. "But only on one condition!"

"What is it?" Natsumi was smiling broadly again.

"I get to pick out one of _my _costumes, and you have to wear it for me."

"Oh...Okay." Natsumi swallowed nervously.

"And I'm wearing something else for my photo shoot..." She scanned the rows of costumes. "You said you liked this one, right?" She held up a French Maid outfit.

"Yeah."

"Alright, let's hang the rest of these up and get back to my room." She turned towards Natsumi and smirked. "I have a certain bunny costume that will fit you quite nicely."

* * *

**Chapter 3.2: Chisame and Hakase**

"Hakase, remind me why I'm doing this again."

"For science!" The scientist girl lowered her goggles over her eyes. "Don't worry, Chisame! You aren't the first test subject, and all previous test subjects responded positively."

"What the heck are you wearing goggles for!"

"Safety reasons."

"Safety reasons! If there's a possibility that this can go wrong in a way that requires you to have safety goggles, I want out!"

"Chisame, please relax. I assure you that the testing process is perfectly safe. The goggles are simply protocol that must be followed. A mere formality, if you will. Now just lean back and try not to move around too much."

Chisame leaned back into the apparatus in which she was sitting, which appeared to be half recliner and half dentist chair. _This would be less terrifying if I wasn't naked..._

"Hakase, can't I at least put a shirt on? It's freezing in here!"

"Sorry, clothing might inhibit the testing process. Even if it didn't, all the other test subjects were also naked, so giving you clothing would skew the data."

"Whatever, just hurry it up."

There was a whirring beneath her as the chair leaned back, and a footrest popped out, lifting her legs into the air.

"Okay, Chisame. Please move your legs so that they are resting in the indentations."

Chisame shivered as she slid her ankles into the dents. Her feet were uncomfortably far apart.

"Um...Hakase, this is kinda painful..."

"Just a moment, I'm adjusting the seat to your proportions." There was another whirring noise as the footrest moved a bit closer to the rest of the chair, allowing Chisame to bend her legs a little. "Better?"

"Yeah..."

"Okay, I'm initiating the sequence!" Hakase sounded unusually excited about this. Normally, the mad scientist would have considered experiments on such a base subject to be beneath her. Maybe she had experienced it firsthand...

Chisame jumped as two handholds popped out of the arms of the chair.

"Hakase, what are these for?"

"Get a good grip on those. If you move around too much we may have to repeat the experiment. That's also what the belt is for."

"Belt?" Before she finished saying the word, Chisame felt a wide band of fabric being stretched across her midriff, pressing her against the chair.

"Initiating final sequence!" Hakase's voice was practically ecstatic. She was enjoying this way too much.

There was a dull mechanical roar as a massive mechanical arm descended from the ceiling, bearing the experimental device.

"Is the giant robot arm really necessary!" Chisame's nervousness was evident in her voice. "Couldn't you just hold the damn thing yourself?"

"While the device is indeed intended for handheld use, and would in fact be quite useless if it were not, we are using a mechanical application system to assure an accurate data set. Your reactions will, of course, be monitored."

"Monitered! You're recording this!" There was a clang as the arm moved to it's final position. There was a moment of silence before Hakase's voice echoed throughout the testing chamber.

"Activating!"

Chisame heard a loud buzzing sound. Knowing exactly what it was coming from and what she was about to experience didn't make her any less anxious.

* * *

Chisame lay breathless in the chair, completely drenched in a mix of her own sweat and a few other bodily fluids. _There...there are no words...that...that was...I don't even know..._

"Now then..." She turned to see Hakase walking toward her, clipboard in hand, goggles pushed up to her forehead. "On a scale of one to ten, how pleasurable would you rate this experien-"

"Twelve."

"Alright..." She scribbled some notes and walked up next to the chair and tilted her head as she looked down at Chisame. "Let's see...rate of breathing...face appears flushed...pulse..." She took hold of Chisame's wrist. "Ok, good." She turned her gaze to a small lcd screen on the side of the chair, continuing to jot notes on her clipboard. "Overall duration from activation to climax...grip strength on the handholds...maximum volume of subject's vocal response to stimulation..."

"Volume?" Chisame lifted her head slightly.

"Yes. It's important to monitor all forms of response in the subject." Hakase was still grinning from ear to ear. "I never expected you of all people to vocalize with such vigor..."

Chisame let her head fall back down.

"Is that it?"

"Yes, the testing is complete. You are free to go."

The chair lowered back to the floor. Chisame made her way to her feet, staggering slowly along on wobbly knees. Hakase held out a bathrobe.

"You may want to cleanse yourself before putting your clothes back on." She laid down the clipboard and threw her labcoat over a chair. "I guess we're done for today. Thank you for your willingness to participate in the test."

"Wait." Chisame caught Hakase's hand. "We're not done yet."

"What do you mean?"

It was Chisame's turn to grin.

"It's your turn."

* * *

**Chapter 3.3: Chisame and Setsuna**

Chisame sat on her favorite bench, overlooking the lake upon which Library Island sat. Before long, the sun would begin to dip below the horizon. Until then, Chisame planned on reading a book, and maybe snaking on the bagel that she had wrapped up earlier that day. She had just settled into her usual reading position when she heard slow footsteps coming down the path.

She looked up to see Setsuna shuffling towards the bench, head down, clutching herself and shivering as if was the dead of winter rather than a balmy spring evening. Setsuna was practically next to her before she even realized that the bench was occupied. She jumped a little as she noticed the orange-haired girl.

"Oh...Chisame..." Her eyes were hidden by her hair, which she had allowed to flop down in front of her face. "I...I guess I didn't see you there..." Her voice was uneven and scratchy, as if it was beginning to fade away.

"Are you alright?" Chisame couldn't remember the last time she had seen the demon girl so unsettled before. Even when they had been trapped in the magic world facing hordes of enemies, Setsuna had always at least been able to put on a brave face. "Why don't you sit down for a few minutes?"

She really didn't like sharing her bench; it always irked her when she was trying to read, only for some random person to drop in and try to start a conversation. But chances were that Setsuna needed to sit down more than Chisame needed the bench to herself.

"Ok..." Setsuna slowly lowered herself onto the far end of the bench. She pressed her legs together and hunched over, still holding herself tightly, as if she was trying to shrink. Chisame could hear her breathing slowly; not the long breaths of someone who felt relaxed, but the labored and paced breaths of someone who was trying not to hyperventilate.

"Are you sure you're okay?" Chisame looked up from her book to see that Setsuna was balling herself up even more; she had drawn her feet up to rest on the bench and was pressing her face into her knees. Setsuna wasn't exactly what she would call a close friend, but they had been through enough together that it bothered her to see her classmate so distraught. "Did something happen?"

Setsuna nodded wordlessly.

"What is it?"

As Setsuna turned to face Chisame, finally revealing her reddened eyes. Her voice cracked as she forced it out of her mouth. It was barely audible, but it struck Chisame like an explosion.

"...Konoka"

Chisame felt the blood drain from her face. If there was one constant in the chaotic hodgepodge that was her life, it was that Konoka and Setsuna were together. Best friends. If something had happened to that...

"What happened! Is she alright!"

"She's...she's fine..." Setsuna hung her head and gazed blankly into the sunset's reflection off of the lake.

"W..what do you mean?" Chisame could feel her own voice wavering a little. Setsuna looked back at her.

"Promise not to tell anyone?"

"Of course. You know I can keep a secret."

Setsuna turned back to face the water before answering, as if it were easier to pretend that she wasn't talking to anyone.

"Well...I...I did something really stupid..." She rested her chin on her knees and took a deep breath. "It's just that me and Konoka had been friends for so long, and we getting so close, and we had been through so much together. I wanted to...I mean...I thought that..." She bit her lip for a moment as she tried to force the words out. "I thought that we could be more...than just friends...that we...that we could be lovers... So I worked up the courage, and I finally got up the nerve to tell Konoka how I felt...what I wanted to do..."

There was a moment of silence before Chisame spoke up. This was delicate ground, and she wasn't very good at being tactful. But she made her best attempt.

"You mean that..." Her voice was barely above a whisper. "..you asked her to...uh...do _that_?"

Setsuna nodded slowly, still staring into the water.

"And she...turned you down?"

"No." She buried her face in her knees once again. Chisame could barely make out her muffled voice. "It would have been better if she had." She inhaled slowly. "We...we tried to do it right. We went out to a nice dinner, had rose petals scattered around the bed, candles, everything. But...but she..." Setsuna choked on her words.

"Here." Chisame held out a water bottle. The demon girl uncurled slightly as she accepted the drink. "What happened?"

Setsuna untwisted herself further, putting her feet back on the ground. She clenched her fists to keep her hands from trembling.

"We...we went back to the room, and we got into bed and Konoka...she" Chisame could see wetness beginning to leak out of Setsuna's tightly closed eyes. "She hated it. I could tell. She tried her best enjoy it, to look like she wanted it... She smiled, moaned, called my name... But when I looked in her eyes..." Tears began to trickle down her cheeks. "She didn't want to be there. She didn't want to be in bed with me...she...she already had everything she ever wanted from me. But..but I couldn't see that."

She rested her elbows on her knees and pressed her face into her hands. Her whole body shook as she struggled to breathe evenly.

"She didn't want to admit it to me...I had to drag it out of her. She never wanted a lover...just a best friend..."

Chisame edged cautiously towards Setsuna, reaching out slowly to place a hand on the girl's shoulder. She was at a loss. It was if someone had just pulled a rug out from under her. But she knew that her mild uneasiness couldn't even be compared to whatever tangle of feelings Setsuna had in her head. She could think of only one thing to say.

"Well...don't you still have her as a friend?" She tried to smile, but it undoubtedly looked fake. It didn't matter; Setsuna wasn't looking at her anyway.

"I...I don't know." Setsuna pushed her voice out of her mouth through gritted teeth. "That's the worst part. Maybe...I ruined it...everything. I...I spent so long...wishing I could be her friend..but now...but now that I finally had it...I ruined it."

Her whole body began to tremble as she began to spit out the words. "Now when she sees me, she won't see her best friend anymore. She'll see that night. She'll see me doing things to her that she never wanted to experience. She'll remember a night that she should have shared with someone else..someone she wanted... Her first...my first...they..they're gone because I...because...I..."

Setsuna's voice died away as her body was wracked with sobs. Chisame felt like she was frozen. She could think of nothing to say. And only one thing that she could do. She leaned closer and wrapped her arm around to the sobbing girl. Setsuna slowly rocked forward and buried her face against Chisame, convulsing as she wept into the orange-haired girl's shirt.

Chisame didn't know exactly how long she sat there, listening to Setsuna's muffled cries. The sun had almost disappeared beneath the horizon when Setsuna was finally still. She patted the girl on the back.

"Are you alright?"

Setsuna sluggishly pushed herself upright. She sniffed loudly and wiped her face with her arm.

"Yeah...I guess..." She looked down at Chisame's shirt, now damp with tears. "I'm sorry...I didn't mean to...to unload on you like that..."

"It's alright." She tried to smile again. This time it was genuine. "Sometimes you just need to cry, you know? Just get it out." She paused for a moment as she heard a subtle rumbling sound. "Was that your stomach." Setsuna nodded sheepishly.

"I haven't felt like eating since...you know..."

"I understand." Chisame stretched hear arms above her head. "When did it happen?"

"Last night."

"You haven't eaten since yesterday?" Chisame reached into her bag and rummaged around for a few seconds before retrieving her bagel. "You need this more than I do." She pressed it into Setsuna's hand. "That's probably not enough." She looked thoughtfully into the darkening sky as Setsuna began munching. "You want to go get cheeseburgers or something? Just hang out for a little while?"

"Yes." Setsuna nodded and for the first time that day, smiled a little. "I'd like that."

"Come on." Chisame stood up. "I know a good place that isn't too far from here."

Setsuna slowly rose to her feet and began to gingerly walk alongside Chisame. She turned to face the other girl.

"Um..Chisame..."

"Yeah?"

"Thank you."

"Think nothing of it." Chisame threw the strap of her bag over he shoulder. "Listen, if you ever need to talk, you know where to find me."

Chisame smiled as she walked alongside Setsuna down the lakeside path. Maybe she had found someone she could share her bench with.

* * *

.

* * *

Well, that's another chapter down. Turned out being a bit longer than I though. The next chapter may start revisiting earlier sections; I haven't decided yet. I'll definitely start doing continuations of previous sections at some point, I'm just not sure whether I want to start that already or save them for later.

3.1: I tried to find some common ground between Chisame and Natsumi based on their respective attempts for attention. I don't think it's ever stated in canon that Natsumi joined the theater club to try to get noticed, but given that she's always worried about being a "side character" I thought it wasn't too great of a leap. I was planning on having them discuss their respective views in more depth, but it was kinda forced, so I left it as is. I'm not exactly sure why Natsumi is so dead set on getting Chisame into the "leaf-kini". Maybe eventually it'll go somewhere. Maybe.

3.2: Yeah, this is by far the most explicit thing I've written for this compilation, and I don't know if I'm going to top it anytime soon. It was a lot of fun to write, especially Hakase's dialogue. It's a bit of mystery why Chisame would let Hakase test this kind of invention on her, but it's (hopefully) funny, so it doesn't have to make sense. And apparently Hakase has a personal interest in seeing how this particular experiment turns out. If I do a continuation of this section, I might identify some of the other "test subjects"; I would like to write a section to this story with more than 2 or 3 characters.

3.3: I have a feeling that I'm going to be drawn and quartered for this, seeing as the famous KonoSetsu pairing had to be dealt with in order to isolate Setsuna. I would just like to note that I put a lot of thought into finding a way to eliminate the potential romance in an amiable fashion rather than the commonly used "Want to break up a pairing? Turn one of them evil!" technique. I would also like to note that as far as canon goes, I am a KonoSetsu supporter and hope they have a happy ending. But in the context of this fic, that just didn't work out. Although I do find the idea of Chisame incorporating herself in Konoka and Setsuna's relationship to have potential. In any case, while writing this I realized that it is really really tough to find a lot of different ways to describe crying without coming across as saccharine or making Setsuna seems too weepy. I figured that given her previous characterization and stoicism, she'd try to hold back the emotions, but if there's anything that could crack her exterior, it's Konoka. So hopefully her breakdown at the end doesn't seem like overkill; she's just letting out her repressed emotions. Also, I would like to apologize for any emotional whiplash that I caused by placing this section immediately after the Hakase one. Hopefully the next chapter will be a little bit more balanced.

I don't know exactly when the next chapter will be up; I have a major paper and a number of minor assignments due in the coming weeks. Hopefully I'll be able to upload something before thanksgiving, but don't get your hopes up.

Please review; advice is welcome. If you have suggestions for characters you want to see in the next chapter, drop that in the review as well.


	4. Misa, Yue, Chigusa, ?

Finally got around to updating something. I've been busy.

Two disclaimers:

1. I decided to branch out into non 3-A characters early. The reason for this is that I didn't want to have a bunch of semi-realistic pairings in the early chapters, and a bunch of ridiculous ones in later chapters. This way, the serious and insane sections will be spread more evenly. So yeah, this chapter has a bit more insanity in it. Hopefully it still works.

2. Section 4 contains **MASSIVE SPOILERS **for the most recent Negima chapters; as in when I wrote it, the chapter it's based on hadn't been released in Japan yet. So if you aren't completely caught up on Negima, you might want to skip part 4.

* * *

**Chapter 4**

**Chapter 4.1: Chisame and Misa**

Chisame allowed herself to be dragged by the arm up the stairwell and down the hallway. _If she really really didn't want to come, she would have locked herself in the room again, _Misa thought to herself. It was the only way that the cheerleader could convince herself that Chisame wasn't completely averse to going to a karaoke place.

Getting Chisame out of her room was no easy task; it had taken the promise of a free meal, a private room, a fistful of meal tickets, and half a dozen other vaguely defined perks before Chisame had grudgingly accepted the offer. And this effort was comparatively light; six months earlier it had taken a week and a half of wheedling simply to get Chisame to walk with her to the convenience store a few blocks off-campus. _I must be making progress; it only took me four days to get her to agree to come with us..._

"Okay, we're here! Room 7!" Even though Chisame's sullenness eating away at her optimism, Misa's voice was as chipper as always.

Chisame eyed the label on the door suspiciously.

"Rainbow Rumpus Partytown?"

"Yep." Misa gave Chisame a none-too-reassuring thumbs up. "Best room in this whole place!"

She flung the door open with far more gusto than the action deserved.

"Wow..." Chisame's voice was void of any enthusiasm that the word implied. "It sure is...colorful in here."

The room was best described as a twisted patchwork; everything was covered with large squares and swirls of patterns and colors. The furniture looked like it had been appropriated from a daycare. The floor was blanketed with a thick, kaleidoscopic, shag carpet.

"I know, isn't it great!-?" Misa flopped onto the overly fluffy couch that sat against the wall.

Chisame stepped gingerly into the room, as if she were afraid of being contaminated.

"It...it looks like the sixties crawled in here and died of an LSD overdose."

"I know, that's what makes this room so amazing." Misa rolled over so that she was lying on her stomach. "Come on, you must like it a _little_ bit..."

"But it's so...so garish." There was a light twinge under Chisame's eye. "I mean, there's even a disco ball..." She pointed at the mirrored orb dangling from the ceiling. "This entire room is just absurd."

"But that's the whole point!" Misa tried to sound excited, even though her stomach was sinking faster than a ball of lead. _Crap, I should have taken her to a more normal room._ "The whole allure of Rainbow Rumpus Partytown is that it's so horrible that it wraps back around into awesomeness!"

"I'm pretty sure that that's not how things work."

Misa rolled back over and began kicking her legs in the air.

"You're only saying that because you haven't experienced Partytown for yourself. Once Sakurako gets here and we crank the music up, you'll understand."

A sudden series of muffled beeps emanated from Misa's handbag. She stuffed her hand into the clutter of items in her purse, fishing for her cellphone. As she retrieved it, the seemingly random sounds formed themselves into the Super Mario Land dungeon theme. Misa flipped the phone open and held it up to her ear.

"Hey, Sakurako. What's taking you so long? You what? Tonight?" Misa's expression deflated a little. "I understand. Yeah. Have a good time. See you later." She snapped the phone shut.

"What was that about?" Chisame was sitting on one of the chairs in the corner, arms tightly folded.

"Uh well..." Misa scratched her neck with a single finger as she tried to think of the best way to break the news. "Sakurako kinda sorta can't make it. Apparently she won a raffle for a concert in Tokyo tonight, so it looks like it's just us."

"I see...Maybe we should just go. I'd hate to see Sakurako get left out..." She stood and took a step towards the door.

"Wait!" Misa lunged forward and latched onto Chisame's wrist.

"Huh?" Chisame's head slowly turned to look at the cheerleader.

_Oh crap, that was way too anxious! How am I going to convince her to stay?_

"Um..well, it's just that I already paid for the room and food and stuff and I'd hate to see it all go to waste..." Misa's chuckling would have seemed incredibly forced if she wasn't so skilled at being perky. "We don't need Sakurako anyway! Look, I even got your favorite type of sandwich!" She pointed at the table.

Chisame glimpsed at the table, which bore half a dozen enormous sandwiches, crammed with so many layers of meat and cheese that they were taller than they were wide. She looked back at the door. Then back at the sandwiches. And back at the door again.

"I even brought Bugles! Hot Buffalo flavor!" Misa held it up. She hadn't been intending to use the Bugles, but it was probably her only shot at keeping the nerd girl from walking out.

"Okay, fine." Chisame sat herself back on the chair. "I'd hate to have you waste your money." She snatched the bag of Bugles out of Misa's hand and tore it open. "Go pick a song or something."

Misa held in the sigh of relief. _Okay, the food was a bit of a low blow, but at least she's still __here. As long as she doesn't try to leave...I can work with that. _As she began flipping through the song list, she could hear Chisame munching behind her. _Now I just need to get her to have fun..._

_

* * *

_

**Chapter 4.2: Chisame and Yue 2**

Yue watched through tired eyes as Chisame flitted around the room, preparing herself for the day. The orange haired girl fumbled around her nightstand, trying to figure out where she had left her glasses the night before.

"Come on, Yue. Are you getting out of bed or not?"

The short girl rubbed her eyes.

"Why? Class doesn't start for another hour."

Chisame shrugged.

"I just thought you might want to run back to your room first. Or at least get out of here before everyone else is up...I mean, it might be awkward if the rest of the class found out about...you know...this..." She gestured loosely at the bed and the discarded clothing scattered around it.

Yue could feel her cheeks burning as she recalled how the clothes had ended up where they lay. The only things that were currently on her body rather than the floor were her panties.

"You're probably right..." She swung her feet over the edge of the bed; her legs were so short that the tip of her toes barely reached the floor. "It would be weird..."

"Exactly. You should probably get going before Haruna puts two and two together...although knowing her, she'd probably end up with five." Chisame yawned. "Oh well, I better start getting dressed..."

The rosy tinge on Yue's cheeks blossomed into crimson as Chisame slid her panties down her legs and onto the floor, leaving her wearing nothing but her camisole and her glasses. As she stepped out of them and bent over to pluck them from the floor, Yue couldn't prevent herself from releasing an excited squeak.

Chisame smirked as she saw the forehead girl's expression.

"What are you blushing about? It's nothing you haven't already seen." She advanced towards Yue, twirling the panties around her finger. "Listen, it might be a week or two before we get to do this again, so to...uh...keep you busy until next time..."

With a flick of the wrist, she slipped the panties onto Yue's head, pulling them down so that the short girl found herself staring out of the leg holes. If her face grew any hotter, she would be able to fry an egg on her forehead.

"W..well, then y-you can take mine..."

Her shaking fingers started fumbling at the strings on the side of her own panties. Chisame gently took hold of Yue's hand.

"Don't worry..." Chisame lips drew into a smile as she lowered herself onto her knees. "I'll get them myself."

She brushed her fingertips against Yue's chest. The tickling touch sent a shiver through the small girl's body. Yue felt her skin breaking into goosebumps as Chisame's hand traced its patterns across her body. She closed her eyes as she felt Chisame's cheek against her stomach. As Chisame's lips brushed her midriff, Yue inhaled sharply. She could feel the nerd girl gently kissing her way lower...and lower...and lower...

Yue let out a squeal as she let herself fall backwards onto the bed. As she peeked out from under her eyelids, she could see Chisame sitting on the end of the bed. Dangling from between her teeth were Yue's panties.

"You sure get worked up easily..." The underwear fluttered in Chisame's fingers. "I'd love to finish this up, but you really should get going."

"Yes.." She took a deep breath. "I really should."

Ten minutes later, Yue finally had her clothes back on and was ready to head out the door.

"You sure you got everything?" Chisame mumbled the words around a mouthful of bagel.

"I believe so. Thank you for breakfast. I'll see you in class." Yue reached for the doorknob. Her hand stopped halfway. She skittered back across the room to where Chisame sat at the table. Yue bent down and gave the bespectacled girl a peck on the cheek. "Last night was wonderful." It was Chisame's turn to blush.

"Th-thanks.."

"You're very welcome." Yue smiled at her before flinging the door open and striding out of the room.

The door clicked shut and the room went silent. Chisame sighed contentedly as she began twirling Yue's underpants once again. _Maybe I can free up some time next week..._

_

* * *

_

**4.3: Chisame and Chigusa**

"I can't keep doing this, dammit!" Chisame stormed out of bedroom, messily wrapping herself in her robe as she did so. "I just can't!"

"What's the problem?" Chigusa poked her head out the door after Chisame.

"The problem? Those things are the problem!" Chisame gestured angrily at the two monkey golems that were dancing around at Chigusa's feet. "Those stupid monkeys of yours!"

"What's wrong with them?" Chigusa reached down to let one of the monkeys clamor up her arm and onto her shoulder.

"What's wrong? You're obsessed! Everything is monkeys monkeys monkeys with you! I'm freaking sick of it!"

"Listen, we all have our little quirks-"

"This is worse than a quirk! Having a collection of monkey dolls is a quirk. Having a golden monkey statue is some sort of freakish compulsion!"

"Listen, just because I have strange tastes is no reason to call me a freak."

"You listen!" Chisame spun around. "You know that it creeps me out! But, I learned to live with it, because I thought that you were worth the trouble. But now, I'm really starting to doubt that!"

"Ch..Chisame..."

"I tried to get around it. I really did. But this is where I draw the line. I wanted to be alone with you. Alone. Just the two of us." She slumped down onto the couch. "But no. You had to drag those horrible creatures into bed with us! I'm not a furry, damn it, and I'm sure as hell not going to do anything with you until they're gone! Now either you get rid of those monkey charms and never use them near me again, or get out."

"Can I at least explai-"

"No! If those...those _things_ aren't gone for good in the next five minutes, we're through!"

"Fine." Chigusa spat the word. She snatched her coat up and strode to the door, the monkeys following behind. "I'm sorry." The door slammed so loudly that the wall shuddered. There was a muffled crunch as something fell off of the end table near the door.

Chisame stared blankly at the door. She hadn't actually expected Chigusa to choose the monkeys. _It's probably for the best._ _She has some serious issues..._ She let out a deep breath before looking down to see what had fallen off of the table.

Chigusa's purse.

It was, of course, covered with monkeys. Chisame observed it distastefully before placing it back on the table. Most of the contents had spilled out. The most obvious thing was a ancient sock monkey doll. It was coated with all manner of different stains, and had so many repairs and patches that it resembled a quilt. _This thing looks like it's been through a war..._

She stuffed it back into the bag and turned her attention to the rest of the junk that was now scattered on her floor. Most of it was monkey-related. Monkey pocketbook, monkey keychain, monkey sunglasses. Chisame stuffed it all back into the bag. The only thing left was a small square of old paper. As she picked it from the ground, Chisame realized that it was photograph. She flipped it over.

The first thing that she saw were the smiling faces of a man and a woman, both dark haired and bright eyed. They both hand their hands on the shoulders of a young girl that stood between them, presumably their daughter. The girl stood stoically, apparently looking at the camera with cold eyes. Clutched in her hands was a sock monkey.

Chisame's hands started to shake as she tried to turn the picture over. On the back she could barely make out an " '82 " scratched into the corner. '_82... _There was something about the year...Her eyes widened as she remembered something that Negi had mentioned, back when he was explaining all the weirdness that had happened in Kyoto. _There was a war in the magic world, that had started around that time...and Chigusa's parents..._

She reached back into the bag with a shaky hand until she felt her fingers wrapping around the tattered, old, doll. _It can't be...there's no way..._ Her eyes darted back and forth from the picture to the doll. Years of damage and repairs aside, it was the same.

As she sank to her knees, Chisame let out a long, low, groan as she clutched the monkey to her chest and stared into the cold eyes of the girl on the paper.

_I'm an idiot..._

_

* * *

_

**Chapter 4.4 Chisame and Sextum**

Chisame stared in disbelief at the person walking calmly toward her. At first, she had thought that she was face to face with Fate himself. But something was off. The Fate before her was too tall. And too slender. And this Fate had boobs. Not that any of these details kept Chisame from being utterly terrified.

Behind her, Dynamis chuckled. Or least it was a chuckle for him; for most other people, it would have been considered a full out evil laugh.

"You have got to be kidding me." She forced the words out of her mouth. The other girls around Negi were struck dumb. Ku fei raised her staff. Chisame reached a shaking hand toward her pocket, where her Pactio card was stored. She didn't believe for a minute that it was going to end well, but she was going to go down swinging.

"No need to be afraid." The girl Fate raised a hand. "I have no intention of hurting any of you, though I do not believe that I would have the slightest bit of trouble doing so. My primary objective is simply to check on the boy to ensure that he poses no danger in his current state, although I was quite sure that he helpless."

"Then why are you here!" Chisame tightened her grip on her card.

"Do not be so agitated." The white-haired girl ran her fingers through her hair. "I must admit that the reason for my appearance here is purely personal in nature."

"Even I am forced to wonder what could have brought you down here." Dynamis stared at the new arrival out of the corner of his eye. "I daresay that Quartum and Quintum are more than capable of dealing with the rest of this crew, and I doubt that Tertium would allow you to be the one to finally confront the boy."

"I have no interest in him." She looked coldly at the half-man lying on the floor before looking back at the group of girls huddled around their comatose teacher. "Allow me to introduce myself. I am Sextum, the 6th member of the Averruncus series." She bowed slightly. "I am sorry to say that I am not as familiar with all of you as I could be. I have spent much of my time attending to other matters."

"I..I'm Makie." The girl waved weakly at Sextum.

"Don't be so friendly, nee-chan!" Chamo twitched his tail. "For all we know she's here to ki-"

"Quiet." Chisame's hand closed on the ermine's head.

"I am Konoka." She bowed, politely as ever.

"Akira."

"Ku Fei."

"A-Ako..."

Chisame snorted softly and tried to avoid making eye contact. She was well aware that she was the only one left. She could feel Chamo wiggling furiously in her grip. Might as well let him go first. Her grip loosened, and he slithered his way out of her hand.

"I'm Chamo. This here bespectacled otaku girl is-"

"I am familiar with her."

"Huh!-?" For the first time, Chisame looked directly at Sextum. "How do you know me?"

"You are the internet celebrity known as Chiu, are you not?"

"Holy Crap!" Makie lept to her feet, pointing at Chisame. "She _is_ Chiu! Can I have your autograph!-?"

Chisame put her a hand to her forehead. This kind of crap was the last thing that she wanted to deal with.

"Makie, this isn't really the time for something like this." Akira grabbed one of the gymnast's arms and tried to pull her back down to her seat.

"I can't believe she never noticed that..." Ako whispered at Konoka. "Wasn't it kinda obvious once she stopped wearing the glasses all the time..?"

"Yeah..."

Chisame sighed. Her prospects of ever getting home looked so bleak that there was really no point in hiding her secret anymore.

"Yes, I'm Chiu. What does it matter?"

Sextum cleared her throat.

"I have been a fan of yours for quite some time."

"WHAT!-?" Every jaw in the room dropped, and every head began to turn slowly toward Chisame, who's face was now as red as a tomato.

"When you first entered this world, I was unsure of your identity, but I have since determined that you are in fact the net idol Chiu."

"HA!" Dynamis's laugh filled the air. "So this is why you requested use of that facial recognition spell. I never thought you would use it for something like this."

"Be quiet, Dynamis. This was merely something I pursued in my spare time. At no point did I allow it to have a negative affect on our goals." She took a few steps forward and extended a hand to Chisame. "It is an honor to meet you."

"...Thanks." Chisame offered a limp handshake. Sextum's hand gripped Chisame's tightly, and Chisame felt herself being pulled to her feet. She found herself staring into Sextum's eyes. They were surprisingly bright, almost shining. It was almost as if she were staring into a deep, translucent pool...

She was snapped out of her trance by the sensation of an arm against her back.

"H-hey! What are you.." Her words were stifled by Sextum's finger pressed against her lips.

"You don't need to say anything. I am just happy that I was able to meet you."

All the logic in Chisame's mind was screaming at her to run away, or at least shake her head, anything to change the direction that this meeting was taking. But everything else...everything else was making her stay right where she was. Sextum's eyes weren't like Fate's. The smile that crossed her lips reached the rest of her face. There was something there; some sort of humanity. There was a spark of genuine _happiness_ for something other than their scheming... She couldn't help but smile.

"I...I'm always glad to meet a fan..."

* * *

.

* * *

Yeah there's more weirdness this time around. I didn't want to burn out all the "normal" pairings at the beginning and have a bunch of crack pairings in later chapters. So that's where the Chigusa story came from.

1.1: This one was tough due to Misa being the most "normal" of the 3-A girls. I know she likes Karaoke, so that's what I decided to go with. There isn't a whole lot else to say about it, other than it took me a while to figure out how to explain why Misa and Chisame would be alone together at a Karaoke place. Also, anyone who catches the Shout Out in this section gets five points. But the points don't matter, so don't worry about it if you don't.

1.2: I admit, this is kind of a filler section. I wanted to do a continuation of the first Yue section because it was so short. The problem is that I wrote that first Chisame/Yue story without the intention of putting it into an anthology like this; if I would have I probably would have come up with a more unique situation to put them it. So I just went for broke on the sensuality. Although I do like the idea of Yue and Chisame trying to keep the whole thing under wraps, so I might expand on that if I come back to this story.

1.3: This is where the crack starts showing up. I'm pretty sure that in canon, Chisame doesn't even know of Chigusa's existence unless somebody told her, so I really had to work this one and base it off of their personalities rather than the setting. Which presents its own problems, what with the fact that Chigusa was a villain. So I just glossed over that. Don't think too hard about how they met, got together, etc. because I have no idea how that would happen. The whole monkey thing is an extension of her monkey motif that she used with her golem thingies, and made up my own explanation for why she likes them so much. I figured Chisame wouldn't be too keen on it until she figured out the reason for it. This story is obvious incomplete, and I plan on finishing it up in the next few chapters.

1.4: Okay, this section exists for one reason, and one reason only: I wanted to be able to say that I wrote shipping fic of a character before they were even officially introduced. As such, this story was written based on leaked images for chapter 311, before 311 was even officially released. And as I write this note, the English scanlation isn't out yet either. So yeah, Sextum's characterization doesn't exist in canon yet, so I just took the opportunity to make stuff up. Such as the fact that Sextum is a Chiu fangirl, which I find funny. Of course, this means that I probably got the characterization completely wrong, but considering that I have one page and one line of dialogue to work with, you can hardly blame me. I aimed to just make it enjoyable more than anything. Hopefully it was.

So yeah, enjoy the chapter, and please leave some reviews. Or at least some input on what characters you'd like to see in later chapters.

Thanks for reading.


	5. Chigusa, ?, Ako

**Chapter 5**

**Chapter 5.1: Chisame and Chigusa pt.2 **

Chigusa hung her head over the railing of the bridge. The brook beneath her babbled quietly as she stared into it, looking into the eyes of her constantly shifting reflection. Her anger at told her to continue storming down the road in the same manner she had left the house, but two other forces were telling her to go back.

Her logic dictated that she return because she had forgotten to grab her purse on the way out, and even if she wanted to go further away, she would need to return if only to retrieve her wallet. Her emotions, on the other hand, were still hopeful for some form of reconciliation. Maybe that girl _was_ worth the trouble. _Yes, you have your reasons for being surrounded by monkeys all the time, but she doesn't know that..._

Anger was fighting a losing battle. A bridge overlooking a peaceful stream on a cool night is not the ideal place for maintaining a rage. It was only a matter of time before she found herself slumping back to the house. The only question was whether it would be to tell Chisame that maybe she could stand to loose the monkeys or whether she would just take back her personal items.

The return was inevitable, but something else was still making every attempt to delay it as long as possible. Probably the shame; if she crawled back to Chisame, the girl would just sneer, and make some snide comment. _ But those comments were one of the things that you liked about her._

Chigusa could hear some other internal voice in her brain. Affection, maybe? Or perhaps it was that nagging feeling of loneliness, the one that Chigusa had felt picking away at her for the past twenty years, the one that drove her to take any risk not to find herself alone...but if it were that feeling, it would be the first time that she had felt it for a person...

"Hey, you left this behind."

Chigusa looked up from the river to see Chisame standing on the end of the bridge, holding up a stuffed monkey. Dangling from Chisame's other hand was a purse.

"Oh...you..." The first thought to enter Chigusa's mind, that Chisame was simply getting rid of the remains of their relationship, died as soon as she saw the look on the girl's face. The anger was completely gone, replaced with some other undefinable emotion. Maybe a mix of regret, resignation, and shame. She looked sort of deflated, as if all the fight had been drained out of her.

"I saw your picture..." The girl couldn't look directly at the woman on the bridge. She stared at the ground, and held up the sock monkey in a loose grip. "There's a story behind it, isn't there."

Chigusa couldn't bring herself to look, either. She just kept her gaze on her reflection.

"I got it from my parents for my birthday, just a little while before I lost them in the war. When I first got it I thought it was stupid, but afterward, when I was getting bounced around refugee camps and orphanages...It was really the only thing that was always there. I like having it around, and I guess it just sort of went from there. They make me feel, I don't know, secure, I guess."

"Why didn't you tell me?"

"I don't know." She continued to stare into the dark water. "I should have. Maybe I just thought that I didn't need to. That you would just understand, and go along with it. I guess it didn't work out that way."

"No..." Chisame kicked at a rock. "I suppose that an apology isn't going to fix anything, but I feel like I should give you one anyway. I'm sorry that I called your monkeys stupid, and that they were horrible, and all the other nasty stuff I said. I can't even remember what I said, but I shouldn't have said it. I had no idea that they meant so much to you." She let out a dejected sigh. "I'll leave your stuff on this bench. If you want, you can come back to the house, monkeys or no monkeys. Nothing fancy. Maybe we could talk, have some tea, something..." She swallowed. "Although I guess I can't blame you if you don't...I've been a callous bitch about everything..." Her voice trailed off into the foggy night.

The air was silent except for a rustling sound, and Chisame's footsteps growing quieter before fading away into the distance.

Chigusa finally broke the stare of her reflection, and turned to see her purse propped up on the bench at the end of the bridge, the stuffed monkey sitting beside it.

* * *

**Chapter 5.2: Chisame and ?**

Chisame groaned as she dragged herself out of bed. Mornings sucked. No exception. Why the hell did homeroom have to start so early? Her fingers felt their way to the light switch. The only upside was that she had the room all to herself.

As she fumbled around the counter looking for a clean bowl, something caught her attention. Laying on the floor right inside the doorway was a piece of paper. Someone had apparently shoved it under the door. Chisame grunted as she bent over to pick it up. As she struggled to read the messy handwriting, she let out a long sigh.

A love letter. Crudely written, both literally and figuratively, but sweet in a kind of "at least they're trying" type of way. It was only a few awkward sentences about how whoever had written the thing like her and how he thought she should know, but the mere fact that it was there at all was a bit of a shock. Mainly because the note was addressed to "Chisame".

She had gotten tons of emails and letters from fans of her online alter ego, but that was unsurprising. The "Chiu" persona was practically designed for that kind of thing. But nobody had ever shown interest in _her. _Who on earth wrote this thing?

Her eyes scanned the note a second time, examining the clumsy letters.

"Oh...so that's who it is..."

She slapped the note down on the counter. _As if my life wasn't awkward enough already._

_

* * *

_

Chisame groaned. Every time she knocked on a door, why was it always answered by the person that she least wanted to talk to?

"Did you need something, Hasegawa?" Ayaka was obviously trying to sound friendly even though she was clearly annoyed by the intrusion. "Dropping off class dues, perhaps? If I remember correctly, you haven't turned yours in yet..."

"I supposed I might as well." Chisame grumbled as she dug in her purse for her wallet. "But that's not why I'm here. Is Kotaro here?"

"Oh, Murakami's brother. No, he's usually back late because of some _thing _with Negi-sensei that he refuses to tell me about. Never shows up for dinner. No matter how much work Chizuru and I put in-"

"Okay, okay...You have any idea what time he'll be back?"

"Just as his dinner is getting cold, knowing him."

"That doesn't help me at all, and you know it." Chisame rubbed her forehead. "Just give me a time."

"It depends." Ayaka shrugged. "Probably around eight, maybe? I don't suppose you'd want to come in to wait for him..."

"No, that's fine." Chisame held up a hand. "I'll come back later. If he shows up early just send Natsumi over or something."

"Fine. Why do you want to talk to him so badly anyway?"

"Oh, I uh..." Chisame's brain stalled for a second. "Uh, I have to give...him..a message from..." _I need a name!_ "..Yue."

"Oh, really? I didn't think that Kotaro and Yue talked all that much."

"Oh, she just...found a book..in the library...that she thought he might like..."

"Alright, I'll let him know you dropped by."

"No!" The word was suspiciously emphatic. "I mean, don't worry about that. I'll just make sure that I catch him."

"Okay, then. I'll see you tomorrow." There was a click as Ayaka shut the door.

* * *

Kotaro trudged towards the dorm. Eva's training had been even more brutal than it usually was. Even at best, it was slightly excessive, and having to fight Eva's entire squad of robot maids, plus Chachamaru and Chachazero was especially painful. Mainly because he hadn't realized that there were so many of them. The first dozen or so had gone down easily, but after that it simply turned into a battle of endurance. He looked down at his watch.

"Crap."

It was a quarter after 8. Even when he got back early the Class Rep would start complaining about his lack of punctuality. He was really going to hear it this time...

"Hey, you." The voice came out of a nearby bush.

Kotaro jumped back, striking some sort of martial arts stance as he did so.

"Relax." Chisame emerged from behind the bush. "I just wanted to talk for a minute."

"About what?" Kotaro growled.

"This." Chisame held up the note, waving it at him.

"I...don't know anything about that..." He muttered. Despite his denial, the redness of his face make it clear that Chisame's theory had been totally correct.

"Oh please. Did you really think that I wouldn't be able to recognize your handwriting? Just sit down already. I want to take care of this before it gets any more awkward."

"Hmph." He slumped into a nearby bench, refusing to make eye contact. "Fine."

Chisame took a seat on the bench across from him, staring at the ground, rubbing her hands together.

"So..." She had come up with a plan for approaching the situation, but the specifics were eluding her. "Um...I a bit flattered, I guess. I don't think I've ever gotten...one of these before..."

"I thought you had to get a post office box just for all your fanmail."

"No, that's for all the fans of my Chiu website. You've known me long enough to know that I'm not really like that anyway." She sighed. "None of the people who wrote those letters have even met me anyway.

"I guess you're right." Kotaro fidgeted.

"That's why this was so weird." She stared at the paper in her hands. "I never thought that anyone would prefer Chisame to Chiu..."

"Eh, Chiu is kinda boring, though." The dog boy scratched his head as he stared past Chisame at the tree behind her. "I mean, all she ever does is talk about school and how great her fans are and stuff like that. It's like she's not really there, you know?" He snorted. "I guess she isn't really there, though."

"But why me, then?"

"Well, you're actually interesting, I guess." He shrugged. "You actually have stuff to say, and you don't take crap from anyone. You talk about stuff that matters. Like all that advice you gave Negi. Stuff like that."

"Okay..." Chisame leaned back and stared up at the sky. "But why me, out of everybody else in the class? Why not like Natsumi, or Chizuru or somebody that you actually spend time with?"

"Natsumi-neechan!-?" For the first time, he looked straight at her, staring incredulously. "Ew! No! She's like my sister! Yuck!" He stuck out his tongue. "And Chizuru neesan? She's just scary." He shuddered.

"What about Ayaka?"

"What about the old bat? All she ever does is complain about how I mooch off of Natsumi and how I should be more like Negi."

"Okay, what about all your sparring partners then? What about Kaede? You spend way more time with her than you ever did with me."

"Well, yeah, but that's..." He put a hand to his forehead. "It's like whenever we talk, it's always about fighting and stances and strategy and things like that. Which is cool and I like talking about it with her, but we really don't have much to talk about besides ninja stuff."

"And me?"

"I don't know. I mean, we don't talk much, but we do it doesn't have to be about fighting or whatever. I like that. I like being able to just talk about tv and movies and complaining about how ridiculous Eva-san's training is...I guess it's because I can talk to you without having to worry about all that other stuff; training, pretending to be a little brother, magic...I can just be a regular guy instead of a kung fu dog boy." He looked down at his feet. "I just like being with you. I thought I should let you know somehow, and I know that sometimes guys leave notes like that so I figured maybe I could try that."

"Well, that's..sweet. I guess." She smiled.

"So, uh...now what are we supposed to do? I mean, you figured out it was me really fast..." He sighed. "Do we just pretend that this didn't happen, or what?"

"I don't know." Chisame looked back down at the note. "Like I said, I've never gotten one of these before." She looked up at him. His face was still red, and he was twitching nervously. "..But I can't forget it at least. Don't worry, I won't tell anybody about it." Kotaro let out a sigh of relief. "I guess I'll just have to think about how I feel. All I can really say is that I don't _dislike_ you because of this. I think I'll have to sleep on it." There was a moment of silence. "Well, you should probably get going to dinner before Ayaka gets any angrier. Oh, and if she asks, I told you about Yue's book recommendation.

"Okay." He smiled sheepishly. "I guess I'll see you around."

"Bye." She watched as he disappeared into the dorm before turning her eyes back to the note, staring at the name on the top of the paper.

_Chisame._

She smiled to herself. She had no idea what she was going to do with Kotaro, but at the very least she was going to hang onto the note.

* * *

**Chapter 5.3: Chisame and Ako**

Ako's hands trembled as she tried to apply the powdery makeup pad to her face. The clock on the corner of her desk only gave her twelve minutes before Chisame would show up on her doorstep to escort her on a night out. She stared at herself in the mirror, trying to find the line between "not enough" and "too much". In her mind, getting the ratio correct loomed so large that it was hard to focus on anything else

"How do I look, Akira?" She spun around in her chair. "Did I put enough on?"

"Plenty. A little much, in fact." Akira pulled up her own chair, snatched a tissue out of the nearby box and between swiping at Ako's face. "You don't really have the face for it..."

"Huh?" Ako twitched.

"I mean that in a good way!" Akira tried to grin. "You don't need it, you look cuter without all the gunk on you."

"Oh." Ako relaxed slightly, but the fidgeting continued. "I just really need to look as nice as I can."

"You look fine." Akira pressed her hands in Ako's shoulders in an attempt to stop the shaking. "All you need is a little blush..." She brushed the color onto her friend's cheeks. "Hmmm... pucker your lips for a few seconds." She plucked a small container from the desk and applied the pale pink lipstick onto Ako's mouth. "Ok, you're all set."

"Alright..." Ako teetered nervously to her feet, turning to the full-length mirror hanging on the closet door.

She brushed the wrinkles out of her dress. Hours of time in the dressing room had gone into its selection. It was not quite powder blue; a little darker than that. Simple, no real frills to speak of. She had tried a few of the more elaborate fashions, but it looked more like she was dressing for a costume party than a date. Keeping it simple and relatively plain was her best bet.

The hem of the dress swirled against her legs as she slowly turned to get a better look at herself. It suited her. That's what Akira had said. That's what everyone had said when Ako had elicited their opinions. The woman at the store had practically danced as she exclaimed how much of a perfect fit it was. And for the most part Ako agreed. The front was a bit more low-cut than she was used to, but that wasn't what she worried about.

What she worried about was the back of the dress, or rather the lack thereof. It wasn't really a backless dress; the back simply had a dipping V, similar to the front. And it went just a little bit too low. At the lowest point of the cut were a few visible inches of scar. The air in the room moved against it, and the sensation sent an unwelcome chill up her spine. She felt almost as if she were naked.

Her eyes scrunched shut. She had told herself that she was going to get over this. That she didn't need to be ashamed of her back. The scar wasn't that bad, and only a little bit of it was visible now anyway. And people were going to be staring at her for all sorts of other reasons anyway.

Like the fact that she was a high school student in a restaurant that only adults would ever want to visit. Or that she would be with another girl. That would certainly be distracting. The image formed in her mind. Low light, soft music, couples sitting at their tables surveying the wine lists, men stealing intrigued glances at the two students, wives leering angrily at their husbands...

She could see herself sitting down with Chisame at one of the corner tables, in a high-backed chair, with her back to the wall. Things would be awkward for a few minutes, and she would be flustered, but then Chisame would hold her hand and point out that everyone was only talking in low voices about how they were such a cute couple, and Ako could practically hear the talk from the surrounding tables about how those two girls were so adorable together and how the one in the blue dress was very pretty and it was a pity that she had that scar on her back...

Ako jerked out of her fantasy, heart pounding; the scar on her back practically felt like it was burning. Her knees began to wobble and her head was feeling lighter than it was supposed to. As she stumbled towards her chair, Akira wrapped an arm around her and lowered her slowly onto the bed.

"I can't do this!" Tears began to well up in Ako's eyes. She pressed her palms against her face, refusing to let the tears fall. "I can't go out with the scar showing. I have to do some thing. I have to-"

"You have to relax." Akira put her arm over her roommate's shoulder and squeezed. "Take a few deep breaths."

Ako stopped stuttering long enough to inhale deeply.

"Here, let me get you a drink." Akira hopped up from the bed and went over the sink, talking back over her shoulder. "You shouldn't be worried about the scar. It doesn't matter if other people see it. Tonight is about you and Chisame, okay?" She handed her friend the glass. "And you know that Chisame doesn't care about it."

"Yeah...I know..." Ako stared into the glass. Her hands still tingled a bit, but at least they weren't shaking any more. "It's just, if it weren't for that, I'd be more..."

"More what?" Akira sat down on the bed again. "Chisame doesn't want you to be more of anything. Neither do I. Neither do any of the people that you care about. Or the people that care about you. Chisame knew all about your scar from the beginning. It didn't keep her from being with you then, and it's not going to matter now. She likes _you_, scar or no scar."

Both girl jumped as a loud rapping came from the direction of the door. A muffled voice could be heard on the other side.

"I'm here, Ako! You almost ready? Let's get going. I look ridiculous standing in the hallway wearing this."

"Coming!" Ako shouted as she fumbled with her long, white gloves. "Be right there!" She turned back to Akira. "Do I look okay?"

"You look beautiful." She smiled and gave a thumbs-up. "Don't keep your date waiting."

Ako bumbled with the doorknob for a moment before getting it open. As the door swung back, she saw Chisame, standing the door, hands on hips, wrapped in a strapless black dress with hints of shimmery green. She smiled.

"You look great. Ready to go?" She held out a hand.

"S-sure." Ako gulped as she strode out of the room.

Chisame slid her arm around Ako's side, pulling her close. Ako twitched as she felt Chisame's skin against the scar. She froze for a moment trying not to instinctively jerk away.

"You alright?" Chisame squeezed Ako again. The blue-haired girl smiled. Chisame had put her arm right over the scar.

"Yes, I'm fine. Let's get going. I'd hate for us to miss our reservation."

Akira smiled as she watched the two girls walk down the hallway.

* * *

.

* * *

Okay, so I finally got around to updating this story. Yeah, there are only 3 sections, and one of them is a continuation. But I figured it was long enough, and writing another section would delay this chapter like another week or so. I already have some ideas for the next chapter, which I fully plan on writing. However, I don't know when it'll actually get done because of my classes. We shall see.

5.1: Originally this was just going to finish the story I started last time, but it got longer than I thought it would, so I cut it off at an appropriate point. I tried to write the situation so both parties had equal cause to be mad at each other, but I'm not sure how even it turned out. Even if they aren't on equal footing, the story (hopefully) still works.

5.2: Okay, so it's probably pretty obvious who it is as soon as Chisame knocks on the door, but I still felt the need to build the suspense a little. I might rewrite this story to be more ambiguous about who left the note, but the main thing I wanted to include in this story was Kotaro's reaction to being asked about Natsumi. The love letter thing was kinda secondary, although I liked that it gave me the opportunity to briefly explore Chisame's relationship with her alter ego. I just liked the idea that she was used to getting these kind of letters from her "Chiu" fans, but had never really gotten one for herself. And I tried to make Kotaro sound like a nervous kid talking to his crush, which is why his dialogue is kinda uninventive and awkward. Not sure if I'll write a followup. I'm sure that there's a lot of material to work with in this relationship, but I don't know exactly how to transition from the present situation. I'm sure I'll think of something eventually.

5.3: I already have a followup chapter for this planned (followup, not sequel), mainly because I had two ideas of how I wanted to do this chapter, and they couldn't really be combined. This section was good to write because I started with the couple already established, but not to the point that they're in a serious relationship. I think all the uncertainty of the situation fits Ako's personality really well. She's a bit of a worrywart, so it makes sense that she would have a ton of anxiety over getting ready for a date. I'm aware that this chapter actually had more Akira than Chisame in it, but I think her personality works well for counteracting Ako's insecurities, which is why she's Ako's roommate in this continuity. And of course, I had to factor the scar into it, and figure out how to have Akira explain that it doesn't really matter. It was a fun section to come up with.

Okay, I'm still taking suggestions for future chapters, so leave those in the reviews if there's a pairing you want to see.

And please review, because I want to know how I'm doing.

Thanks for reading.


	6. Sakurako, Beatrix, Takahata, Nodoka

**Chapter 6**

**Chapter 6.1: Chisame and Sakurako**

Chisame buried her head under her pillow. Even the hotel pillow was thicker than her own, it utterly failed to block out the noise of Haruna, Asakura, and Sakurako's yammering. Even though the rooms had been assigned randomly, Chisame couldn't help but feel that the universe was conspiring against her. And she had been looking forward to this field trip, too. She had the worst luck ever.

"Chisame, get out from under there!" Haruna latched onto Chisame's ankles and began to haul her off of the bed.

"Stop that! I'm trying to sleep!" Chisame hooked her fingers on the edge of the headboard.

"Oh please, it's not even midnight yet!" Haruna gave Chisame's legs a yank. "Hey, Asakura, grab a leg and help me get this killjoy out of bed!"

"Sure thing!" The reporter latched onto one of Chisame's feet and pulled, lifting her into the air. "Come on, this is part of the field trip experience!"

"Screw the field trip experience!" Chisame yelled back. "Last time you guys pulled something like this I ended sitting in the freaking lobby all night!"

"Don't worry, we won't leave the room this time." Asakura reassured her.

"I don't care!"

Haruna nudged Asakura with her shoulder, and mouthed "On three" to her.

"One, Two, THREE."

Chisame's grip on the bed failed and the three girls landed in a heap on the floor.

"What are you guys doing?" Sakurako poked her head out of the bathroom. "You ready yet?"

"Yeah, sleeping beauty here is no longer sleeping." Asakura gave a thumbs up.

"Awesome!" Sakurako enthusiastically cracked her knuckles. "What should we do first?"

"Hmmmm..." Haruna's eyes wandered the room, searching for inspiration. Her eyes widened as they stopped on an empty soda bottle that Asakura had left on the table. Her lips twisted into a perverse grin. "Let's go streaking!"

"WHAT!" Chisame's eyes nearly popped out of her head.

"I'm kidding! Kidding!" Haruna began readjusting her glasses, which had been knocked askew by the force of Chisame's shout. "How about Spin the Bottle?"

"Fine by me." Asakura snatched the bottle from the table and took a seat on the floor.

"Wait just a minute!" Chisame sprang to her feet, waving her arms at the other girls. "How are we supposed to play that? Don't you need boys for Spin the Bottle?"

"It's traditional, but not strictly _necessary._" Haruna looked rather ominous as she stroked her chin. "We'll just have to make due."

"Well, but i...isn't this going to be kinda awkward? I mean, we're all girls..."

"Where's your sense of adventure?" Haruna put a hand on Chisame's shoulder. "Don't worry, this will never leave this room!"

"You're kidding, right?" Chisame's eye began to twitch. "You and Asakura are the last two people I'd expect to keep anything under wraps!"

"Oh, come on! You can trust me!" Asakura interrupted. "Besides, it's not like this would be big news anyway. 'Teenage girls experiment with each other' is hardly worth writing a story about. I mean, I'm sure the boys would be interested, but it's really not worth my time."

"It's not just that..."

"Oh come on!" Sakurako grabbed Chisame's hand. "Have you ever even kissed a girl before?"

"Well, no..."

"Then how do you know that you won't like it?"

"Well, I..."

"Please? It's just for one night. I promise I won't tell anybody about it and we'll let you go to bed as soon as we're done. Pleeeeaaasseeee?" Sakurako's eyes seemed to double in size as she gave Chisame's hand a squeeze.

"Oh, _fine._" Chisame sighed, resigned to her fate. "Let's get this over with." She slumped to the floor.

"You've done this before, right?" Sakurako pointed at Chisame with the empty bottle.

"No, I haven't." Chisame grumbled. "Why would I?"

"Oh well, here's how it works: Someone spins the bottle and they have to kiss whoever it points at when it stops spinning. Then that person has to spin the bottle and-"

"I know how it works!"

"Just checking." Sakurako put the bottle on the floor in the middle of the group. "Should I spin to see who goes first?"

"Why don't you just go first?" Asakura suggested. "If you spin it it'll just end up pointing at you anyway."

"All right, then. Here we go!" With a flick of the wrist, the bottle was set whirling.

Chisame stared apprehensively at it as it began to slow down, hoping with all her might that it didn't end up pointing at her. She closed her eyes.

"Hey it stopped!" Haruna's voice caused her eyes to snap open. She groaned. The bottle was aimed straight at her.

"Hold still, Chisame!" Sakurako began to crawl over the bottle.

"H-hey, wait! You must have moved it or something while my eyes were closed!"

"Nobody touched it." Haruna giggled at Chisame's obvious discomfort. "You know how lucky Sakurako is..."

"Pucker up!" Sakurako's face was only inches away. If not for her distress, she might have been able to see the faint blush on the cheerleader's cheeks. Chisame began to scooch herself backwards, away from Sakurako's advance.

"W-wait...I-"

The words were cut of as Sakurako lunged forward, shoving her mouth against Chisame's as both girls fell to the floor. There was a moment of silence as Asakura and Haruna stared in awe of Sakurako's enthusiasm. Sakurako popped upright, a wide smile smeared across her face as she scuttled back to her seat.

"That was fun!"

"Eagh..." Chisame's arms wobbled as she pushed herself up, breathing heavily. "Was that...was that really necessary..." She glared daggers at Sakurako, who remained oblivious. "I think you overdid it a little."

"If it's worth doing, it's worth overdoing!" came the cheerful reply.

"I'm not even sure if this was worth doing..." Chisame muttered.

"Your turn to spin." Asakura pressed the bottle into Chisame's hand.

"Huh?" Chisame stared blankly at the glass container that now rested in her palm.

"If it stops on you, you get kissed, then you spin it, kiss that person, then they spin it." Haruna rattled off. "That's how the game goes."

"Of...of course..." She sighed as she placed the bottle on the floor and gave it a halfhearted twirl. It barely made a single full revolution before it began to slow. Chisame kept her eyes on the bottle as it came to a stop, pointing at Sakurako.

"Yay, I get to kiss Chisame again!" This time the blush on her cheeks was more pronounced. Of course, Chisame was too busy pressing a hand to her forehead to notice.

"Why does this not surprise me..."

She looked up to see Sakurako kneeling expectantly, eyes closed and lips protruding slightly.

Chisame let out a long breath before she approached. As she forced her face nearer to Sakurako's she could feel her face beginning to grow warm. Being the recipient of a kiss was one thing, but kissing someone else was totally different. She closed her eyes and leaned forward. As soon as she felt her lips touch Sakurako's, she sprang backward.

"That's it?" Asakura narrowed her eyes. "Does that even count?"

"Oh don't be so hard on her..." Sakurako was holding her fingers to her lips. "It's her first time kissing someone, after all..."

"Really? You never kissed anyone before?" Haruna scratched her head.

Chisame grunted in response.

"Well, we can't stop now!" Sakurako grabbed the bottle again and sent it spinning. Chisame looked on in horror as it stopped once again, pointing in her direction.

"You have got to be kidding me." Her eye began to twitch.

"Oh, don't be so nervous." Chisame looked up, and for the first time noticed the ever-growing flush on Sakurako's cheeks. "I'll make sure you enjoy it." Chisame felt a tingling sensation run down her spine as the cheerleader licked her lips. It was going to be a long night.

**Chapter 6.2: Chisame and Beatrix**

"Are you sure that you want to go through with this?" Chisame fidgeted as she sat on the edge of her bed.

"Entirely sure." Beatrix gave Chisame's hand a gentle squeeze.

"But won't Emily be upset? You could get in trouble for this. She has a lot of pull at Ariadne, and if she finds out..."

"My mistress should be fine with this arrangement. Our...arrangement was strictly business. We both know that all of our dalliances were simply a service that I rendered to her as part of my duties. Now that her sensual desires seem to have been met in her relationship with your large-headed classmate, there is no reason why she should require that I continue to service her in that way. Besides..."

Beatrix smiled one of her rare smiles.

"This will be the first time that I was able to choose for myself."

"I-if you say so." Chisame's cheeks flushed as she watched Beatrix slowly lower herself to her knees. "I just don't want anything to go wrong."

"Don't worry. Everything will be fine." Beatrix slid her fingers along Chisame's legs. As her fingers disappeared under Chisame's nightdress, the blush on her cheeks grew even brighter. A small squeak escaped Chisame's lips as Beatrix drew her hands back, taking Chisame's panties with them. "Are you ready, Chisame?"

"O-of course." She sputtered. "It's just...I never thought it would be like this, you know?" She put a trembling hand against Beatrix's cheek and stared into her eyes. "Be gentle with me, okay?"

Beatrix simply nodded as she put her palms against Chisame's legs, slowly drawing them apart. Chisame closed her eyes, her face burning as she felt Beatrix brushing back the bottom of her nightgown. She could feel Beatrix slowly moving forward, her head making its way between her thighs...

"Hey, Chisame! Can I borrow your l-"

Chisame's eyes snapped open as she heard the voice, as well as the slam of the door opening. She was greeted by the sight of Yue and Emily standing in the doorway, eyes as wide as dinner plates. Yue was frozen; Emily was slowly raising a shaking hand to point at the two girls.

"B-Bea?"

Beatrix slowly turned her head to face the door.

"M-mistress?"

"What do you think you're doing!-?" Emily started to charge into the room, only to be slowed down slightly as Yue latched onto her waist in a futile attempt to hold her back. "I thought you were supposed to be the servant of my family! My servant and bodyguard! What the hell are you doing with her!-?"

"Apologies, mistress!" Beatrix spun around on her knees and bowed deeply, forehead touching the floor.

"Gyah!" Chisame clamped her legs together and folded her arms over her lap.

"I am sorry." Beatrix continued. "I thought that your relationship with Yue meant that my services in this regard would no longer be required. If I was in error, please accept my humblest apologies."

"W-w-w-what are you talking about!-?" Emily stuttered. "To think that someone of my stature would be romantically involved with- let go of me!" She paused to pry herself out of Yue's grip. "-with a commoner like her?"

"Emily..." Yue raised put a hand on the girl's shoulder. "I think that it's time we-"

"Shhh!" Emily clamped a hand over Yue's mouth. "A-anyway, if you think that's the case you are sorely mistaken. Not only would it dishonor my family name, but it would result in me getting several demerits on my personal record, and I would lose my position as class representative. Furthermore, I-"

"Will you just stop for a minute!-?" Chisame stood up, hands on hips. "Okay, first of all, you people need to freaking knock when you go into somebody's room!"

"Um...Chisame..." Yue lifted a finger at the lower half of Chisame's body.

"Huh?" She looked down at herself, and her face flashed red. She grabbed the front of her shirt and yanked it down to cover her nether regions. "Dammit! This is why you need to knock!" Holding her shirt down with one hand, she managed to fumble her glasses onto her face with the other. "Anyway, you guys can stop pretending that you aren't an item. Pretty much everybody knows."

"Preposterous!" Emily scoffed. "What makes them think that?"

"Well, Yue visits you in your private quarters on a daily basis."

"Those are merely private tutoring sessions." Yue tried to keep her voice as nonchalant as possible, despite the fact that her forehead was beginning to resemble a rather large tomato. "As you know, I was quite far behind in my studies when I returned, so it was only natural that-"

"Will you drop the act already?" Chisame interrupted. "I know that you aren't doing any tutoring in there. You can hear the moaning from the courtyard. Everybody in the dorm knows that you're 'private tutoring sessions' are just a cover for...other activities."

"H-how do you know that it's us? It could be anyone in the dorm!" Emily stuttered.

"I...recognize the moans, mistress." Beatrix stared at her hands, trying not to make eye contact.

"You...know how I sound that well?"

"Yes, mistress..." Beatrix continued not looking at Emily. "Especially the sound you make when you...uh...hit the high point..."

"You recognize me from _that_?"

"It's a very distinctive scream."

"See?" Chisame glowered at the intruders. "Everybody knows that you two are going at it all the damn time. If you were going to get in trouble over it, you would have already. So can you please just stop the charade and just let Beatrix do what _she_ wants for a change?"

"Fine, we'll go." Emily began to retreat towards the door. "Beatrix, I apologize. You are no longer required to render that type of service, and are hereby free to pursue any romantic relationships of your own choosing." She glared at Chisame. "Sorry for the intrusion."

"Whatever, just get out already. And knock next time!"

"Yes, of course." Yue grabbed Emily's hand and began to pull her out of the room. "Perhaps you should divert some of that family fortune of yours into soundproofing. You really are quite loud-"

The door clicked shut. Chisame sighed, and flopped backwards onto the bed.

"Should we pick up where we left off?" Beatrix asked.

"No. They kinda ruined the mood. I'd rather have our first time be uninterrupted." She stared at the ceiling. " And remind me to lock the door next time."

"Of course, Chisame."

**Chapter 6.3: Chisame and Takamichi**

"Well, I never thought I'd see that..." Haruna craned her neck to get a better view over the edge of the restaurant patio that overlooked the food court plaza.

"See what?" Yue stood on her tiptoes, attempting to look over Haruna's shoulder.

"Right there. Outside the Starbooks. Second table from the left near the door."

"Is that Chisame?" Nodoka squinted.

"Look at who else is at the table." Haruna cackled.

"It's Takahata-sensei," Yue observed dryly as she returned to her seat at the table.

"I know! Who would have thought? Even I would never have expected those two."

"Um, Haruna." Nodoka scratched her head. "Are you sure that this is...what you think it is? I mean, you're assuming a bit much, aren't you?"

"Oh, come on!" Haruna spun around, stomping her foot in emphasis. "Can't you people recognize a date when you see one?"

"I think Nodoka is right." Yue sat down. "There are any number of reasons why they might choose to have lunch together."

"Name one."

"Well, after her performance at Mahorafest, it isn't unlikely that the faculty would be interested in hiring her to assist in maintaining the magical computer networks. She's certainly more qualified than anyone else on this campus."

"Why do you always have to be so logical, Yue?" Haruna slumped against the railing, her enthusiasm largely crushed by Yue's reality check.

"Come on, Haruna..." Nodoka gently patted the top of Haruna's head. "Did you really think that Chisame would ever go on a date with Takahata-sensei?"

"No! That's why I was so stoked about it!" Haruna snorted. "But I'm not giving up yet. It might be a work thing, but I'm not going anywhere until I figure out what's going on with them."

"Do you really have the patience for that?" Yue muttered.

"I will sit here all day if I have to!"

"You do that." Yue sighed. "It's not like you have anything better to do."

"Of course I don't!" Haruna grinned. "I just wish I had a pair of bin- AHA!" Haruna thrust her finger at the table where Chisame and Takahata were seated.

"What is it!" Nodoka rushed to the railing.

"She just laughed at his joke!" Haruna babbled. "Takahata-sensei told a joke and she laughed at it! Chisame never laughs at people's jokes!"

"That's odd, but it hardly substantiates your theory in any meaningful way." Yue sighed as she set her cup on the table. "Maybe Takahata simply shares Chisame's sense of humor."

"Will you knock it off with the reasonable explanations already?" Haruna grumbled. "Spying like this is no fun when you can't make ridiculous theories about it. Stop raining on my parade!" She turned back in a huff. "You notice anything weird, Nodoka?"

"Nothing that I can see." She rested her head on the railing. "And before you ask, they're out of range of my artifact."

"Hmmm..." Haruna stroked her chin. "Maybe I could use my artifact to whip up a camera or a microphone or someth-"

"Hey, what are you guys looking at?" Nodoka and Haruna spun around to see Asuna standing next to Yue, hands on hips. "It isn't polite to spy on people, you know."

"Uh...it's nothing." Haruna waved her arms. "We're just people watching."

"Must be some really interesting people, the way you were staring." Asuna started towards the edge of patio. "Let me see!"

"Um, you really shouldn't." Nodoka tried to block Asuna's advance, but the redhead simply stepped around her.

"You can't look!" Haruna grabbed Asuna's arm and yanked her away.

"Why not?"

"Because it's...all too shocking!"

"Get out of my way!" Asuna shoved Haruna out of her path. "Now I know you're hiding something!" Haruna and Nodoka watched nervously as Asuna surveyed the area for whatever it was they were trying to keep from her. "I have no idea what you guys are so concerned about. There's nothing... Wait."

Haruna braced herself for the inevitable impact.

"WHY IS CHISAME HAVING LUNCH WITH TAKAHATA-SENSEI!"

"That's what I'm trying to figure out!" Haruna placed a nervous hand on Asuna's shoulder. "You probably know more about Takahata than anybody. Do you have any idea?"

"No, I do not!" Asuna slipped from Haruna's grasp as she began to stomp down the stairs leading into the plaza. "But I'm going to go find out!"

"No, Asuna!" Nodoka stood in the entrance to the stairway, hesitatingly confident that Asuna wouldn't run her over. "You shouldn't go down there!"

"Why not?" Asuna stomped her foot, bearing an uncanny resemblance to a bull preparing to charge.

"Well, what if it's not...that..."

"What else would it be?"

"I have a few theories." Asuna jumped to the side as Yue seemingly materialized next to her. "There are plenty of explanations for their behavior that do not involve any sort of romance."

"And besides..." Haruna once again put a hand on Asuna's shoulder, this time with a tighter grip. "If you go down there all mad and start a fight with Chisame while she's having her lunch with Takahata, who knows what he would think of you?"

"He probably wouldn't care!" Asuna grunted. "You know how many fights I've gotten into."

"Yes, but those fights weren't the result of you interrupting him while he's trying to have lunch with someone." Haruna leaned in close. "Even if they _are_ up to something, blundering in there probably isn't going to help your case any."

"I guess..." the redhead grumbled. "But I want to know what they're up to!"

"Oh come on, Asuna!" Haruna slapped her on the back. "It's like you haven't been in our class for the past however-many-years-you've-been-in-our-class! You should know by now that we're experts in spying on people who are on dates! It's practically a tradition at this point."

"So, what?" Asuna eyed Haruna suspiciously. "Are you going to help me get closer to them, or what?"

"Better!" Haruna flung an arm around Asuna. "We are going to assemble a date-spying team the likes of which this world has never seen before!" She thrust her other arm into the air. "Then we will know all!"

"I guess we could-"

"Good! Now we must prepare! Come along." She latched onto Asuna's arm and began dragging her towards a nearby building.

"This is not going to end well." Yue sighed as she sat back down at the table.

"You always say that," Nodoka replied as she watched Haruna tow Asuna along.

"And I'm always right."

"True, but at least it should be fun to watch."

**6.4: Chisame and Nodoka**

Chisame let her head roll back on the pillow. Her breathing and her heartbeat were finally starting to slow down a bit. She gently closed her hand around Nodoka's. She smiled as she felt the warmth of the girl's skin, and the coolness of the simple silver band wrapped around her finger.

It suited her so well...much more than the dress had. Now the dress was slumped over a chair in the corner; little more than an amorphous blob of white. Not that Nodoka hadn't been absolutely beautiful when she wore it, but Chisame preferred her like this. She was beautiful enough without the clothes in the way. All she needed was the ring. When she had slipped that ring onto Nodoka's finger, Chisame was staking a claim. She glanced at the identical ring on her own hand. That was Nodoka's claim. With that, Chisame had thrown away her independence. And her isolation. And she never regretted it for a second.

She could still hardly believe it. And her doubt that what was happening was real was hardly the fluffy, generic "I must be dreaming" type of doubt either. It was hard and analytic. Before it all began, Chisame would have called it completely impossible. Only a year ago, they could scarcely hold hands without a crimson flush spreading across her face. Twenty minutes ago they had been holding each other as close as they knew how. And now Nodoka was resting her head against Chisame's naked chest, her lips curved into a serene smile. How was it even possible for it to be the same girl?

Chisame shivered as a cool breeze from the window flowed over her skin, which was still damp with sweat. She felt Nodoka tremble as the chill washed over them. The dark haired girl blinked sleepily as she looked up, her dark eyes peeking through her disheveled hair. Chisame smiled as she rolled herself over, wrapping both arms around her lover, drawing her closer. As she tightened her embrace, she leaned forward and planted a gentle kiss on Nodoka's lips. Nodoka's cheeks bloomed with redness as she laid her head back down. Chisame rested her cheek against the top of Nodoka's head, her doubts melting away.

It was good to know that even after all they had done that night, all it took to make her blush was a simple kiss.

**Chapter 6.5: Chisame and Sakurako part 2**

"Got any threes?"

"Go fish."

Asakura sighed as she picked a card off the top of the deck.

"I should've known that a luck based game would be a bad idea." She looked over her shoulder at Sakurako and Chisame, whom were still twirling the bottle. Invariably, every single time one of them spun it, it ended up pointing at the other girl, just as it had been doing for the past half hour. "This was your idea, you know."

"Shut up, I didn't think they'd let it go this long."

"I am kinda surprised Chisame hasn't tried to stop."

Haruna grinned as she watched the cheerleader and the hacker share yet another kiss.

"It doesn't surprise me that much. I think she's starting to like it."

* * *

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* * *

Finally got around to updating this story. Took long enough. Oh well.

6.1: I had to work Sakurako's ridiculous luck into the story _somehow_.

6.2: I'm not even sure where this idea came from. Probably at least partially inspired by all of the Yue/Emily shipping, and me overthinking how that could affect everyone else.

6.3: Okay, this one actually has a point. I wanted to try writing something where instead of having it revolving around Chisame's relationship with someone, it's about other people's reaction to it. When I decided to use Takahata for this section, it was all but inevitable that Asuna find out about it. I'll (hopefully) resolve the story in a future installment.

6.4: Yet another attempt to challenge myself by writing a story with no dialogue. I actually intended for it to be more humorous, but it went and turned into something completely different. Just as well, though. I might write the humorous version some other time.

6.5: Just a little bonus thing.

Anyway, thanks for reading thus far, and please leave a review.

Also, I make no promises when the next chapter will be up. I really have no idea.


	7. Chigusa, Yue, Ako, Arika

**Chapter 7.1: Chisame and Chigusa**

Chisame slumped over on the kitchen table, resting her head on her arms, staring at her half-full cup of coffee. The only thing that told her how long she had been there was the fact that there was no longer any steam rising from the cup. She closed her eyes. Her only consolation was that she had resisted the optimistic urge to make an extra cup of coffee. It would have been cold by now anyway.

Maybe tomorrow she would feel a little better. Or maybe little sad. At the moment she didn't feel much of anything except fatigue, and even that was just her body's protest against being kept up so late. As far as any actual emotion, there was nothing. She had gone through so many different feelings in the past hour that she had burned through any emotion she had left. If she felt anything, it was a sort of lingering sense of emptiness, and the sensation that she should be experiencing something, but wasn't.

Now she just needed to gather up the motivation to pick herself up, trudge down the hallway, and let herself fall into bed. But it didn't happen. It wasn't that she was too tired; it was more like she felt she had no reason to bother. Or rather, that there was no reason not to just stay sprawled on the table. There was no reason to bother getting into bed. It wouldn't be any more comfortable. She couldn't feel anything anyway...

Chisame blinked. She must have nodded off. As she took a deep breath, a familiar aroma filled her nose. She squinted. The coffee cup was steaming again. And it wasn't the same cup she had made for herself. She blinked again. As her eyes focused, she could make out a familiar form sitting at the table across from her.

"Huh...?" She mumbled, still not sure whether she was awake or dreaming.

"Hey." Chigusa took a sip from her own coffee mug. "I'm back." She reached out and took hold of Chisame's hand.

"Really?" Chisame rubbed her eyes with her free hand. "After all of that..."

"Shhh..." Chigusa held up a finger. "I know I said and did some stupid things. I think we both made some mistakes, but I think we can fix it." A lump began to form in Chisame's throat as she tried to think of something to say. Tears began to gather in the corners of her tired eyes.

"I...but I..."

"We don't need to talk about this now, okay?" Chigusa smiled as she ruffled Chisame's hair. "It's late, and we're both tired. We shouldn't talk about it like this. Is it okay if we sleep on it and talk in the morning? When we're both able to think straight? I'm sure we'll get it figured out." Chisame gave a weak smile as she nodded.

"You're right. We will."

* * *

**Chapter 7.2: Chisame and Yue**

Yue trembled as she walked into the classroom. Haruna and Nodoka had still been asleep when she had snuck back into the room, but there was still a nagging feeling in the back of her mind that they were suspicious. Well, at least in Haruna's case. Nodoka was probably just curious. But even so, they probably knew something odd was going on. They might not know exactly what it was, but they would try to find out. Haruna would goad Nodoka into breaking out her artifact and... Yue's blood ran cold.

How on earth was she supposed to hide something like this from Nodoka? If she ever summoned the Diarium Ejus, the secret was out. Her mind would be filled with endless repetitions of "don't think about Chisame don't think about Chisame don't think about Chisame". And of course she would be able to think of nothing else. And it would even be illustrated! If her friends saw her doing those kinds of things, she could never recover.

Nodoka would never be able to look at her the same way again and Haruna...that didn't bear thinking about. Haruna would be interested. She'd get ideas. She'd probably ask Yue if she could watch sometime so she'd have material for her latest doujin. Nothing good could come of that, other than seeing Chisame slap Haruna in the face. That would be satisfying, but everything else would be hell.

The images already began to form in Yue's mind. Haruna would snatch Nodoka's artifact out of her hands, and then the questions would begin. And Haruna being Haruna, the questions would be the most inappropriate things she could think of. "So what's your favorite position?", "How many orgasms did you have?", "What does Chisame taste like _down there_?". Obviously, she would keep her mouth shut, but it wouldn't matter, because Haruna would have the book. They would look at the words and the pictures, and their eyes would widen. Nodoka would be stunned into silence, and Haruna would just smile and say "I never knew you were into that". It was terrifying. And it was inevitable. Nodoka didn't bring out the artifact often, but it was only a matter of time.

Maybe there was some way out of it. Maybe there was some way to block Nodoka's artifact. Yue's mind raced to her own artifact. It had information on everything; maybe there was some way to block Nodoka's telepathy. But that might almost be worse. Because then they would know she was hiding something. Yue didn't usually hide things from Nodoka and Haruna. Nodoka would be also dejected that her best friend was hiding something from her, and Haruna would stop at nothing to find out what it was.

Or perhaps she could tell someone. She could tell Nodoka what was going on. Not everything, obviously, but just enough. All Nodoka needed to know was that there was a relationship, and that Yue would appreciate it if she didn't prod any further into it. Haruna would have to be kept in the dark for a while, but Haruna could manage that. But what if Chisame didn't want anyone to know? She probably didn't have any reason to hide it from Nodoka, other than a little awkwardness. But still, it would be best to ask first. After all, Chisame was the one who had suggested keeping the whole thing under wraps.

"Morning, Yue." Yue snapped out of her stupor with a jump as Chisame slipped into the seat beside her.

"G-good morning."

"Are you okay, you look kinda red." Nodoka put a hand to her friend's overly large forehead. "You're a bit warm..."

"No, it's..uh...I didn't get much sleep last night.." She sputtered. "I'll be fine."

"Alright." Nodoka removed her hand. "I think I have some aspirin in my bag if you want any..."

"Oh...okay." Yue took a deep breath as she watched Nodoka walk to her seat. She was almost completely sure that Nodoka suspected something now, if she hadn't already. She had to think of a way out of this predicament.

"I know how you feel, Yue." Yue turned to see Chisame winking at her. "I didn't get much sleep last night either."

* * *

**Chapter 7.3: Chisame and Ako**

Chisame paced back and forth across her room, wondering what the hell she had been thinking. Everything was going to go wrong. It was inevitable, she had set herself up for failure. Tonight was going to be a disaster. Oh, it had started alright. Inviting Ako out to dinner was a fine idea. Nothing wrong with that. But after that it had all gone downhill. "Let's go somewhere nice this time." Chisame had said. Now she wanted to somehow go back in time and punch herself across the time/space continuum.

That had been such a horrible idea. How had she not foreseen all of the problems? Nothing wrong with a nice restaurant. Of course it was, all of her numerous online sources had called it the most romantic restaurant in the whole area. That was probably why she had been a bit hasty in making the reservations. Sure, it was a nice place. Too nice. It was probably one of those places where everything on the menu was in French and you had so many sets of silverware that you didn't know which one to start with and each course (of which there were probably six or seven) would be the size of chicken nugget but that was just as well because it was probably made of snails or intestine or fungus some other disgusting byproduct that you didn't recognize because you don't speak the language that the damn menu was written in.

And of course your miniscule meal would cost so much that you'd have to sell a kidney on the black market to have a chance of paying it. And of course, Chisame would be footing the bill. This whole thing had been her idea, after all. She wasn't about to invite Ako out on a romantic outing and then force her to pay for herself. No way in hell that was going to happen.

Of course, the trouble would start long before the food, or even the menu, arrived at the table. Chisame had doomed them both to a night out that would be utterly dominated by awkward stares. They were freaking high school students. High school students did not go to that sort of restaurant. They would probably be the only students in the place. And it wasn't as if they could pass themselves off as university students either. Ako had apparently stopped aging a few years back; the girl looked more than a middle schooler than the high schooler she was.

And of course, they both had to be girls. That alone was enough to put a damper on the whole evening. They'd be getting sideways looks from people the whole time. Ako had been through enough pain just coming to terms with herself. The last thing she needed was people pointing fingers at her on account of the fact that the person she was on a date with just happened to have a vagina. The poor girl hated being the center of attention in any case, even when all the attention was positive. And now Chisame was dragging her into the limelight, practically calling for the higher echelons of society to point fingers at the lesbian middleschooler who had invaded their world. What a stupid idea.

There was no way that they were ready for something like this. Their last date had been at a WcDonald's. You weren't supposed to go from WcDonald's straight to some restaurant with a nigh-unpronounceable name ending in "eaux". There were supposed to be some intermediate steps in there somewhere. This wasn't a casual date restaurant. This wasn't even a "one-year anniversary" restaurant. This was a "we're getting serious" restaurant. This was the type of place you proposed to someone. You didn't take your girlfriend on a night out at this restaurant. Yet that's exactly what Chisame was doing.

Maybe there was some subconscious desire to move the relationship forward in there somewhere. The mere thought of that was nothing short of terrifying. Not for any usual reason; she had no fear of settling or being tied down, and she could think nothing but good things about a life together with Ako. No, the fear that was gnawing at the inside of her mind was that she had let something get out of her control, and now everything was teetering on the brink. What if Ako didn't want whatever it was Chisame's mind had been after?

Now she had about five minutes before she had to walk out the door. She had looked herself over in the mirror a dozen times already, but she was still afraid that there was something wrong. She had spent hours going through dressed before settling on one. Black went with everything, right? There were some shiny flecks of green in there, but that wasn't a problem. Maybe it was too flashy. It was too late now anyway. Glasses or no glasses? She had settled on glasses, but now she was second-guessing herself again. Was there some sort of psychological thing behind that? Was she putting up some sort of barrier between herself and Ako? Or did she just want to make herself look a little plainer so that Ako looked that much better?

But Ako wouldn't want the attention anyway. She didn't like it when people looked at her. Especially not in a dress. Chisame had seen the dress. It was very pretty. Light blue. It would fit Ako very well.

Except for that damn slit in the back. Of course Chisame had remembered that until now. Ako's scar would be showing. That was going to overshadow all else. If even the tiniest bit of it was visible, Ako would never leave the apartment. Of course Chisame wanted to know the story, but it was obvious that there was nothing in the universe that Ako wanted to talk about less. Chisame hadn't pressed the issue. She didn't see what the problem was; as far as scars went, it wasn't particularly ugly. It was even a little alluring. The first time Ako had allowed her a good view of it, Chisame had to fight the urge to reach out and touch it and stroke it with her fingertips, to run her fingers across Ako's back...

Only two minutes now. Glasses would have to do. She took a deep breath, trying to force herself to believe that she was only overthinking everything and that she was just being pessimistic. At the very least, if the night turned out to be an unmitigated disaster, at least she wouldn't be alone. If only there was some way to guarantee that Ako would enjoy herself... She found herself standing in front of the door of Ako's room. On the other side of the door she could hear muffled voices. She closed her eyes and took a deep breath before rapping loudly on the doorway.

"I'm here, Ako!" She fought to keep her voice from wavering. "You almost ready? Let's get going. I look ridiculous standing in the hallway wearing this." She winced at the sound of her own voice. Too harsh and impatient. She planted her hands on her hips, attempting to compose herself as the door swung open. A knot formed in her throat as Ako stepped into the doorway. The dress hung elegantly from her shoulders as she bashfully twiddled her white-gloved fingers. Her cheeks were flushed so much that she was practically glowing. "You look great." Chisame fought the desire to give the girl a hug and settled for reaching out a hand. "Ready to go?"

"S-sure." Ako slowly stepped forward, taking Chisame's hand. As she turned, Chisame caught a glimpse of her back. A small patch of dark skin was just barely visible. Chisame dredged up as much confidence as she could muster. Unable to believe was she was doing, she pulled Ako closer to herself, wrapping an arm around her back. Ako shivered as Chisame's arm pressed against the scar.

"You alright?" Chisame tried not to sound anxious. The night had literally just begun, and she might have already made a horrendous mistake. Why on earth had she done that? Ako hated it when people so much as looked at her back. And now Chisame had gone so far as to touch it...

"Yes, I'm fine." Ako smiled, and Chisame had to fight to keep herself from doing a celebratory dance. Maybe the night wouldn't be a complete disaster. "Let's get going. I'd hate for us to miss our reservation." Chisame could only nod as she began to walk down the hallway, holding tight to Ako.

* * *

**Chapter 7.4: Chisame and Arika  
**

Chisame wasn't entirely sure exactly what form of address she was supposed to be using. She had known Negi for long enough that a certain level of familiarity could be assumed to be in place in regard to his immediate family. Although then again, even in that case a fairly high amount of respect was in order.

The royalty thing was a whole other issue. Arika was no longer a queen or a princess, so something as direct as "your Highness" or "your Majesty" was right out. But still, the woman had once led a country, and that was a fact that couldn't be entirely discounted. Maybe "Princess" and "Queen" were those types of titles that stuck even after they technically didn't apply any more. Like how the president was still called "Mr. President" even after his term had expired.

Of course, the fact that Chisame had no idea how the politics of Mundus Magicus function meant that all of her theories could be entirely off the mark anyway. Maybe they had their own form of address with no comparable equivalent in Mundus Vetus. In the end she just went with the first thing to pop into her head as she poked it nervously into the doorway of Arika's chamber.

"Y-you wanted to see me, ma'am?" She cringed as she said the words. "Ma'am" had too many connotations of age. Granted, even if she didn't at all look it, Arika was almost certainly old enough to merit use of the term, but still it was entirely possible to be taken as a veiled insult.

"Ah, yes, Chisame, come in." Arika waved the nervous girl into the room. Despite the fact that she hadn't actually ruled anything for decades, she still maintained her royal presence. Something about the confidence in which she sat in her chair, with which she beckoned Chisame to come forward. It was obviously the same sort of manner that a princess would grant a commoner some sort of audience. "I've been meaning to talk to you for quite some time." She pointed at a chair. "Please, take a seat. Feel right at home."

"Ah, yes..." Chisame sputtered as she closed the door behind her. "May I ask why you wanted to see me?" The question felt a bit forward, but at least Arika had given some indication that this was supposed to be an informal meeting.

"To be quite frank, I wish to oversee my son's choice of spouse." "Oh, I see- Wait. What?" Chisame froze as she comprehended what had just been said. "That means that you think I'm...uh...I don't think that..."

"Let me explain." Chisame went silent as Arika held up a hand. "I know full well that the royal family of Ostia will almost certainly never return to power. But despite that, I feel an obligation to make sure that my son marries well. After all that he has been through, he deserves that much. As such, I am interviewing the various potential wives to ensure that he does not make any grave mistakes."

"Um..okay, I understand that..." Chisame took off her glasses and began to massage her temples. "But why am I here? I don't really have any plans for...that..."

"I've been asking around your classmates and members of Ala Alba for quite some time now." Arika replied. "I wanted to discover the most likely candidates. Almost everyone that I talked to placed you near the top of the list of those who Negi would pursue a relationship with."

"Are you serious?" Chisame sighed, wondering which of her acquaintances was to blame for this gross misconception. Rakan, Chamo, and Haruna were obviously the prime suspects, but Arika wouldn't possibly base her theory on the word of those idiots. Maybe Yue or Chachamaru had given her the wrong idea.

"Please relax." Arika smiled. "At this point I have no intention of forcing you to marry my son. My only desire is to ensure that if such a relationship does come to pass, that you are fit for it."

"So the whole point of this interview is basically to find out if I'm good enough to date Negi?"

"To put it crudely, I suppose so."

"If I purposely answer all your questions wrong, does it mean you'll leave me alone?" She grumbled. "I mean, if I'm too much of a bitch, I'm out of the running, right?"

"Actually, I didn't call you here to discuss your character." Arika continued to smile. It was a bit disconcerting.

"You didn't?"

"No. I've found that if you want to know someone's true character, the last person you want to ask about it is them. In that regard, I've found out all I want to know by questioning your friends. It is my pleasure to tell you that my findings were favorable."

"That's good to know, I guess." Chisame smiled a bit. Maybe she hadn't been as disliked as she had thought. But still, that was something to muse on later. "Then why am I here?"

"Well..." Arika glanced off to the side, with the look of someone who was making a determined yet futile effort to maintain composure in the face of embarrassment. "It may seem sort of pedantic and superficial, but I feel it is important that my son's bride be...attractive. The events of the past years aside, he is descended from one of the oldest royal families, and it is fitting that his wife be beautiful."

"This is about my looks?" Chisame's eye twitched. "If that's what you want, you can look on my website. I have all sorts of pictures on there. I'm sure that somebody in the class can show it to you or something."

"I am well aware of that." Arika cleared her throat. "But even so, I believe that it is important that I examine you personally."

"What!-? Examine..." Chisame looked down at herself. "You mean you want to look at...my body?"

Arika nodded.

"Now?"

Nod.

"Here?"

Nod.

"I...uh...I'm not sure if..."

"Please, Chisame." Arika stood up. "This will only take a few minutes. After that I will leave you alone."

"But I..." Chisame closed her eyes. No point in delaying the inevitable. Arika was a force to be reckoned with when she had her mind set on something. "Fine...I guess that means I should undress..."

"Of course." Arika nodded sagely as Chisame began to unbutton her shirt. "Let's see what we have to work with here..."

Chisame shivered as Arika's fingertips brushed her cheek. "Clean skin, facial symmetry, very good. The hairstyle leaves a little bit to be desired, and the glasses hide much of your face, but I'm sure you're fully aware of that. After all, if all those pictures you take of yourself are any indication, you clean up quite nicely."

"Thanks." Chisame muttered, trying not to think of how she was now wearing only her bra and panties. The rest of her clothes lay in a pile around her ankles. When she had first entered the room, she had been sweating profusely; now the room seemed uncomfortably chilly.

"Now then..." Arika's hand moved so quickly that Chisame didn't even have time to react. It wasn't until she saw her bra lying on the floor in front of her that she realized she was now topless. How Arika had removed it so quickly was a mystery; the thing had so many hooks that even Chisame sometimes had trouble getting it off.

"What are you doing!-?" Chisame clamped her arms across her chest. "I did not intend to leave any stone unturned." Arika folded her arms.

"There is no reason for this to be awkward. We're both women after all, and you're no stranger to being naked around your classmates."

"That's different, though!" Chisame felt her face burning. "There's a big difference between being naked around other people and being examined like this!"

"I did hope that you could be mature about this." Arika sniffed. "I suppose that your modesty is a good thing, but you're only prolonging the process. None of the others put up such a fuss."

"Others?" "Yes, all of the potential wives are undergoing the same process. It is not as though I had singled you out."

"Of course..." Chisame muttered to herself.

"So is it at all possible that you allow me to proceed now? I have many things that I need to do, and I would like to check this off of my list."

"Fine." Chisame forced her arms to her sides, turning her head to the side. She could already feel Arika's eyes fixed on her chest. "Hmmmm...not too large, but very nicely shaped. Quite perky, no sagging at all..."

Chisame inhaled sharply as she felt Arika's hands gently cupping her breasts.

"Soft, smooth..." Squeeze. "..yet firm." Arika nodded contentedly before slowly lowering herself onto her knee. Chisame gritted her teeth. Oh no. Not that... She squeezed her eyes shut as she felt her panties drop around her ankles. Now it seemed like she was standing in a freezer. Her skin was already covered in goosebumps. Her fists clenched, resisting the urge to shiver as she felt Arika's hands begin to knead her behind.

"Very good. Hips have a pleasant curve. Slender, but not too bony. Just the right amount of substance." Now Arika's hand was pressing against her stomach. "Also very good." Another press, a little bit lower. "Not flabby, not overly skinny either."

Lower, right at the bellybutton. "Not too much muscle definition, but that's alright..."

Lower. Chisame took a deep breath.

"Excellent." Lower. And this time it was a jab.

"EAAGH!" A loud squeal escaped Chisame's lips as she slammed her legs together. "Don't do that!" She clamped her hands over her crotch and began to stumble backward.

"Interesting..." Arika smiled. "That was quite a nice sound you made there..."

"Huh?" Chisame sputtered. "Y..you mean..."

"I am sure that if you are the one my son chooses, that he will be more than satisfied. You have my approval. We are done here. You may put your clothes back on."

"Thanks..." Chisame turned away from Arika as she began pulling her clothes back on. She could still feel Arika's gaze. She looked back. Arika was still staring. "I suppose it's good to know that I have your blessing if I ever do choose to make my move on your son for some reason." She chuckled nervously.

"Of course." Arika brushed her hand across her lips. "Although..." She took a step forward. "There might be a small...complication in that regard..."

"Huh?" The blood drained from Chisame's cheek as Arika pressed her hand against it. "I might want to keep you for myself..." Chisame felt paralyzed as she found herself staring into Arika's eyes. Her jaw trembled as she tried to form a protest.

"I...uh..." Her tongue felt numb as she attempted to form her words. "I...have...to go...place..." She wagged a finger towards the door as she shuffled backwards. Her fingers fumbled blindly at the doorknob. There was a creak as she stumbled into the hallway.

"Chisame..." She froze as she heard Arika's voice call from the room. She wanted more than anything to keep walking away, but the former royal's voice carried such authority that she couldn't help but stop.

"Y..yes?"

"This afternoon I'm having a tea party for all the potential wives. You will be there, will you not?"

"O-of course..." It was impossible for her to refuse.

"Good. I'll see you at four out on the balcony." Her voice seemed to have deepened slightly, each word seemed to have a deep breath behind it. "I look forward to seeing you there." The door closed with a click, and Chisame found herself alone in the hallway.

_What the hell am I supposed to do now?_

* * *

.

* * *

Eagh. This chapter was actually written like 2 weeks ago, but between college graduation, vacation, and my laptop crapping out on me, I didn't get to post it until now. Case in point, if some of the formatting seems a bit wonky, it's because the original file got eaten when my computer died, so I had to recover it by copying the excerpts from a forum where I had posted them, which completely erased all the original formatting. I think I fixed most of it, but I might have missed something.

Most of this chapter is dedicated towards cleaning up loose ends. Both the Chigusa and Ako sections can be considered complete, even though they're a bit open ended. The Yue ones are still going, now that I finally decided what I want to do with that plot thread. The Arika section is the result of a request made on the Tvtropes Negima fanfic forum. Also because I wanted to have at least one section here that was original and not a sequel to something.

Anyway, thanks for reading. Reviews and requests for other characters are welcome.


	8. Takahata, Evangeline, Jack Rakan

**Chapter 8**

**Chapter 8.1: Chisame and Takahata 2**

"Where the heck are we?" Asuna asked. All she knew at the moment was that they were somewhere under the campus, trudging through what would have looked like a sewer if it hadn't been so expansive. Haruna was leading the way, dragging Hakase by the arm. Yue and Nodoka brought up the rear of the group.

"We're in the Mahora tunnel system," Haruna answered, grinning widely.

"But why?"

"To find out what your beloved Takahata-sensei is discussing with Chisame, of course," Haruna said. "Let's just say that Hakase owes me a favor." She tugged playfully at the scientist's ear.

"So what exactly is she going to do for us?" Asuna asked.

"I'll let her explain. It's around here somewhere, right, Hakase?"

"Affirmative," the scientist answered. The group rounded a corner. "Yes, this is the location." She stopped and drew a small remote out of her lab coat. As she punched the single red button on the device, a loud rumble filled the tunnel. A section of the stone wall began to fold up into itself, and a large, shiny bank of screens and buttons emerged from the gap.

"What the heck is that?" Asuna stared incredulously at the station.

Haruna smiled wickedly as she patted the edge of the console.

"This is the thing that's going to help you defeat Chisame and gain Takahata's love for yourself!" She threw an arm around Asuna's shoulder. "It'll help us analyze the nature of their relationship."

"So you're spying on them?" Yue asked. "And you see no potential ethical problems with intruding on a private meeting?"

"Well, _someone…_" Haruna paused to glare at Nodoka, whom promptly looked away, "…refused to let us borrow her artifact, so we were forced to resort to more mundane methods."

"Science is hardly mundane!" Hakase grumbled. She flipped a switch on the edge of the console. It flickered to life with the sound not unlike that of an old television being activated.

"You can't use my artifact because I don't want to use it to spy on people like that!" Nodoka said. "You know I don't like prying into people's minds."

"But it would be so much easier!"

"You're missing the point..." Yue rolled her eyes. "This is the exact kind of ethical issue I was talking about."

"If you're so worried about it, why are you still here?" Haruna retorted.

"Morbid curiosity."

Apparently satisfied with the answer, Haruna turned back to Hakase.

"Are we ready?"

"Affirmative."

"So what exactly are we doing?" Asuna eyed the machine suspiciously.

"This console was constructed by the science department to gather demographic information about the student body and conduct analysis on it." Hakase continued to poke at the buttons on the bank of screens. "While sociology is generally considered a soft science, we believe that we can examine the biological factors that lead to certain forms of social interaction, resulting in-"

Haruna clamped a hand over the scientist's mouth.

"Long, story short, we're going to analyze those two, and figure out the nature of their relationship. Hakase, activate the periscope!" She released the girl, who scurried back over to the console. With the press of a button, a viewport descended from the roof of the tunnel. "Let's take a look, shall we?" She put her eyes up to the base of the periscope and began to slowly turn it.

"Where does the top of that thing come out of?" Asuna asked.

"Right under the table where your classmate and your teacher are sharing your meal."

"So you're telling me that there just so happens to be a periscope right under them?" Yue sighed. "That's ridiculous."

"Oh come on, you've been at Mahora long enough that this sort of thing shouldn't surprise you."

"I suppose you're right."

"Okay, let me just zoom a little bit... Perfect!" Haruna looked up from the periscope. "Take a look, Asuna. You're gonna want to see this."

The redhead took hold of the periscope and peered into it.

"Uh, I have no idea what I'm looking at. Where is this thing looking?"

"Right up Chisame's skirt!" Haruna replied.

Asuna stared into the periscope for a moment as her brain finally organized what her eyes were seeing into something recognizable. Sure enough, Chisame's inner thighs dominated her field of vision. Asuna spun around.

"What the hell, Haruna!-? Why on earth would I want to see that?"

"Oh, please," Haruna said. Her mouth still twisted into a maniacal grin. "Just look again. I'm sure you'll find it interesting."

"No!" Asuna stamped her foot. "This has nothing to do with figuring out what's going on with Chisame and Takahata-sensei! You're just screwing with me!"

"No, I am not!" Haruna sniffed. "This is completely relevant. Look again."

"Why? I don't want to see up Chisame's skirt."

"But you do! Trust me, this is very important information!"

"What, do you want me to examine her shaving habits or something? This is stupid. I'm leaving." Asuna began to stomp down the hallway.

"Wait!" Haruna grabbed Asuna's arm. "Just one more look. I swear, it's important! You just have to look closer." Asuna glared daggers at Haruna. Haruna merely returned the glare. "Don't you want to know if your classmate has stolen Takahata's love...?"

"Fine." She shoved Haruna off of her. "I'll look again, but I swear this had better help me or I'm getting the hell out of here."

She reluctantly took hold of the periscope and looked into it.

"Come on, Asuna. Don't tell me you don't notice it," Haruna said.

"Notice what? What the heck am I supposed to-" She squinted into the viewport. "...Those are some really fancy panties."

"Really?" Yue's voice contained mild surprise.

"Yeah, really."

"Take a look for yourself." Haruna nodded at Hakase, who punched a button on the console. The main screen flickered to life, displaying Chisame's crotch in a gloriously high degree of definition. The other girls blinked against the sudden brightness.

"Wow," Yue said as her eyes finally managed to focus on the screen. "Those are quite...elaborate." She tilted her head. "They almost look familiar for some reason..."

"I think I might have a pair of those..." Nodoka said in a low voice.

"Hakase, can you run an analysis on the panties?"

"Affirmative!" She typed a few lines into the terminal, and the image on the main screen was immediately covered with a mess of superimposed numbers and other information.

Asuna stared at the screen as it began to generate a full 3D model of her classmate's underpants. Along the side of the screen, every imaginable statistic and tidbit of information regarding the undergarment was being listed. Suddenly the display stopped flashing, and beeped three times before going silent. Then there was a low buzzing as a long strip of paper began to print out the side of the computer.

"Analysis is complete." Hakase snatched the printout, adjusted her glasses, and began to scan the document.

"What the heck just happened?" Asuna asked.

"I'm glad you asked!" Haruna said. "The computer analyzed the underwear and compared its statistics against a lingerie database to determine where and when Chisame obtained them. From there, we can determine _why_ she obtained them, and why she would wear them to a meeting with her teacher."

"...There's a lingerie database?" Yue began to massage her enormous forehead with her thumb and forefinger. "Why would that even exist? And why would this random computer be linked to it?"

"Oh please, there are databases for everything nowadays." Haruna patted Yue on the back. "Hakase, what information do we have in the analysis?"

"Black panties. Silk. Kingsley Vapor Wear. Retail cost of twenty-three hundred yen. I've had the computer compare this particular style of panties against Chisame's credit history. She purchased a pair of these panties from the Carousel Boutique 32 days ago."

"And this helps me how?" Asuna said, trying to think of what kind of information could possibly fill the length of paper that the machine had created.

"Like I've told you, we can use the info to figure out their relationship. Think about it. Chisame is wearing freaking lingerie to lunch with the guy. And she just picked them up a month ago. They haven't been just lying around. But there's still a long enough gap between purchase and use that we can assume that she didn't just do this on a whim. It was premeditated. Therefore, I posit that Chisame specifically bought the panties with the intent of seducing Takahata-sensei. Q.E.D."

Haruna folded her arms, satisfied that she had proven her point.

"You mean..." Asuna swallowed hard, "…she's really-"

"Wait just a minute!" Yue said as she shoved her way past Asuna. "First of all…" She turned toward Haruna, "That isn't how _quod erat demonstrandum_ works." She turned back to Asuna. "Second, you can't just listen to Haruna like that. She has no idea what she's talking about."

"What do you mean?"

"When it comes to situations like this, one cannot assume that the first explanation offered is correct, or even the most likely. It would be wise to consider alternate explanations that are more probable."

"Oh please," Haruna said. "Like what?"

"Maybe she had another reason for wearing those panties today," Nodoka said. The rest of the group turned around; they had all but forgotten her presence.

"Why on earth would she?" Haruna scoffed at the idea.

"Maybe she ran out of normal panties and had to wear one of her special pairs," Nodoka said. She blushed slightly as she looked away. "It's happened to me before..."

"Huh...really..." Haruna said, stroking her chin. "You're wearing them right now, aren't you?"

"I…uh..." Nodoka began to back away as Haruna moved closer. She all but froze as she felt the cold wall of the tunnel against her back.

"You are!" The gleam in Haruna's eye had a distinctly evil tint. In a flash, she snatched at Nodoka's skirt, flipping it up. The eyes of everyone in the group widened as they got a good, long look at what was beneath it. Or rather, what wasn't beneath it. Nodoka's blush just deepened to the point that her head looked like a tomato. "...or not." She delicately lowered the skirt back into place and turned back to Yue as Nodoka scurried out of the group's collective gaze. "So, you were saying?"

Yue failed to respond. She was still blankly staring at the section of wall where Nodoka had been seconds before.

"Yue!"

"Huh?" She shivered for a moment as she snapped out of her trance. "What?"

"What are your thoughts on Nodoka's alternate explanation for Chisame's panties?"

"Oh, that." Yue cleared her throat. "Well, I think it's more likely than the explanation you gave. We know that such things do, of course, happen."

"We have seduction and laziness as our two possible explanations," Haruna said to no one in particular. "Do we have any other theories?"

"I, uh, have another idea..." The group turned to Nodoka, whose face was only slightly less red. Although this time the flushing was partially the result of frustration at Haruna. Her hands were clamped on the front of her skirt, guarding against any more of Haruna's antics.

"Well, let's hear it!"

"Well, is it possible that the panties are part of one of Chisame's costumes?"

"Costumes? What are you talking about?" Asuna scratched her head in confusion as she spoke. "Why would she be wearing a costume?"

"You mean you don't _know_?" Haruna gaped at Asuna in a rare display of genuine shock.

"What don't I know?" Asuna asked.

"Okay, okay, okay, I thought everybody knew about this by now." Haruna shook her head as if she were ashamed of Asuna's ignorance. "You are familiar with the online cosplay model known as 'Chiu', right? The number one internet idol?"

"How could I not be? You can't go on the internet without hearing about her."

"Well, that's actually Chisame."

Asuna simply stared at Haruna, her brain working furiously to determine whether or not her classmate was trying to screw with her. Almost a full minute elapsed before Asuna managed a coherent reply.

"What."

"Chisame is actually Chiu, the internet idol. I know, nobody saw that coming."

"Y-you can't be serious!" Asuna stammered. "I've known her for years! There's no way she could be a famous model! She's too, too normal!"

Haruna chuckled at Asuna's skepticism.

"Nodoka and Yue will corroborate my story."

The two girls nodded.

"So..." Asuna said, "she's not just messing with my head."

"Nope," Yue answered, "Chisame and Chiu are one and the same. It was a surprise for me as well."

"You're in cahoots with her!" Asuna thrust a finger at Haruna. "Cahoots, I say! This is just some sort of April Fools joke or something! Even though it isn't April! With you people, that's probably part of the joke."

"Fine, fine, we'll just have to prove it. Hakase, run the facial recognition program."

"Affirmative." The console beeped and flashed a few times before displaying two images on the main screen, one of Chisame and one of Chiu. There were a few more fancy CG effects, and the two images began to overlap each other. Asuna's eyes widened as the faces lined themselves up perfectly. There was a final series of beeps, and a small "match confirmed" notice began to blink in the corner of the screen.

"Believe me now?" Haruna asked.

"WHY THE HELL DIDN'T I EVER NOTICE THAT!-?"

"Now that Chisame's dual identity has been established..." Haruna turned away, ignoring the fact that Asuna had been reduced to frustrated muttering by the revelation, "...we can return to speculation on what on earth Chisame and Takahata are up to. Hakase, do you have records of anything else that Chisame purchased during the shopping trip where she bought the panties?"

Hakase held up the enormous paper and began to scan it.

"Black thigh-high socks, a miniskirt, a corset, high heels...also a number of sewing supplies and textiles."

"Sounds like a costume to me," Yue said.

"Hakase!" Haruna barked. "I need you to analyze those articles of clothing and compare them to all the photo sets that Chiu has uploaded in the time since she purchased the panties!"

Hakase nodded, punched some more buttons, and the computer once again buzzed to life.

"It appears that the corset, skirt, and stockings were worn in this picture set, which was upload at roughly 2 a.m. this morning." Hakase pointed at the screen, which was rapidly filling with thumbnails of Chisame wearing a surprisingly skimpy maid uniform. "The skirt isn't quite tight enough to determine if she's wearing this specific set of panties. There are several pictures which are taken from an angle that would theoretically allow us a view of her panties, but in practice these pictures are too indistinct to gather any useful information."

"Yeah, she does tend to self-censor." Haruna stroked her chin as she stared at the pictures. "Even though she'd get even more hits if she tossed in the occasional panty shot. Although we seem to have a bigger problem on our hands."

"What exactly would that be?" Asuna asked. She rubbed her forehead, trying to stave off a Haruna-induced headache.

"We're back to square one," Yue grumbled. "Analysis of the panties was inconclusive. We can't determine anything about Chisame and Takahata's relationship based on her underwear because there are other reasons that she might be wearing them."

"So you mean this whole big spy mission didn't accomplish anything other than telling me that Chisame is actually a famous cosplayer?"

"That seems to be the case," Nodoka said as she put a hand on Asuna's shoulder. "Don't worry; Chisame just doesn't seem like the kind of person to-"

"LIKE WE'RE GOING TO LEAVE IT AT THAT!" Haruna shoved Nodoka away and locked an arm around Asuna. "This is merely a cursory attempt at gathering information. A reconnaissance mission, if you will. We're just getting started! Hakase, ready plan B."

The scientist nodded, and drew the single-buttoned remote from her lab coat and punched the button. There was a low woosh as the console flickered into darkness, followed by a grinding as it folded back into the wall. She turned back to Haruna.

"The necessary preparations are already in place."

"Well, let's get on the move then!"

Nodoka and Yue watched silently as Haruna dragged Asuna down the tunnel, Hakase following behind them. Yue let out a sigh.

"I suppose we should follow them?"

Nodoka stood for only a moment before beginning to stride down the passage. She looked back over her shoulder.

"Why not?"

Yue shrugged and joined her friend as they headed down the tunnel.

* * *

**Chapter 8.2: Chisame and Evangeline**

"Evangeline?" Chisame pounded on the door of Eva's cottage. "I know you're in there! Answer the damn door!" She punched the door a few more times for good measure. She was halfway through one of the strikes when the door opened, so quickly that she had to stop her hand mid-punch to keep herself from socking Chachamaru in the face.

"Oh hello, Chisame. What brings you out here today?"

"I just had to talk to Eva about something," Chisame said, trying to be as generic as possible.

"About what?" Chachamaru asked. She stood in the doorway, showing no sign of intending to move out of the way.

"I'm...uh...I'm stuck in one of my video games."

"Why do you not just consult a video game walkthrough website?"

"It's one of my retro games. GameFAQs doesn't have anything on it. You know as well as I do that she's into those kinds of things."

"I see," Chachamaru said.

"So is she here?"

"She is, but I doubt you'll be able to talk to her." The robot sighed, despite not having lungs. "I'm not sure why, but she seems to be in one of her moods. She refuses to get out of bed. I attempted to talk to her, but Chachazero told me that I should probably leave her alone."

"What, is she sick or something?" Chisame asked. "She's an immortal vampire, isn't she? Doesn't that mean that she can't get sick?"

"Actually that isn't the case, but that's irrelevant at the moment. She briefly left her room this morning to go to the bathroom, and according to my sensors she was in perfect health. I believe she may be suffering from some sort of emotional distress, but I…er...I have no experience in that area, so I cannot be sure."

"Oh, that's...uh..." Chisame wasn't exactly sure how to respond to that. She had come for advice on how to beat level 23 of an obscure TurboGrafx game, not to receive a rundown of Evangeline's emotional well-being. "Maybe I should come back later…"

She began to turn around, only to be stopped by a robotic hand gripping her wrist.

"Actually, perhaps you should talk to her." There was a distinct note of desperation in Chachamaru's voice. "I don't really understand how Master feels. Maybe you can figure out what's wrong."

"Uh, I'm probably not the right person for that either." Chisame didn't even bother turning back around, instead settling for looking back over her shoulder in the hopes that Chachamaru would let go of her arm.

"Actually, I believe that you may be the best person to talk to her."

"Me?" Chisame finally turned back to Chachamaru, who released her wrist. "Why?"

"Your relationship with her is unique. Out of everyone in your class, you are the only one whose visits are social rather than related to training exercises or things of that nature. As odd as it may sound to you, you are probably her closest friend."

"Wait, wait, wait…" Chisame said, waving her hands in front of her face. "What about you? You live with her! Doesn't that automatically put you higher up on the list?"

"I am first and foremost Evangeline's servant. I'm certainly concerned about her well-being, but I cannot understand emotions well enough to be of much help to her. I'm sure that she would be more willing to confide in you than in me."

"I'm not so sure about that." Chisame started to edge away again.

"Please?"

Chisame paused. Despite Chachamaru's claims about her inability to understand emotions, she seemed to be legitimately distressed by whatever it was that Eva was doing. That, and the robot girl had, whether by accident or design, absolutely nailed the "puppy dog eyes" look.

"Okay, fine." Chisame sighed. "I'll talk to her. But if she kicks me out, I'm going to leave her alone, alright?"

"Very well," Chachamaru said, allowing herself a small smile. "Please come this way."

* * *

"Hello? Evangeline?" Chisame's voice was barely above a whisper as she poked her head into the room. There was no response. Aside from the single beam of sunlight shining through the not-quite-closed blinds, everything was dark. Evangeline was nowhere to be seen. According to Chachamaru, the girl was buried somewhere in the massive pile of blankets that covered the bed, although the air in the room was so still that Chisame was inclined to doubt it. She was on the verge of backing out of the room when she heard a small sound come from the bed. "Evangeline? Is that you?"

The pile of sheets began to rustle. A low half-moan, half-mumbling sound emanated from the bed as the top of Evangeline's head poked out of the tangle of blankets. She squinted at her visitor before speaking up in a raspy voice.

"What?"

"Are you alright?" Chisame asked as she took a step into the room. She shivered. The room was a good deal colder than the rest of the house.

"I'm fine," Evangeline answered. Her voice was so scratchy that Chisame barely understood the words. "Go away." She disappeared back under the covers.

"Are you sure?" Chisame took another step forward. At first she had suspected that Chachamaru was just exaggerating Eva's condition, but now...there was just something off about Eva's voice.

"I'm fine." Eva's voice was muffled by the covers. "Leave me alone."

"You don't sound fine." Against all her instincts, Chisame took another step forward. There was definitely something wrong. Exactly what was wrong, Chisame couldn't tell, but Evangeline barely even sounded like herself. "Chachamaru is really worried about you. Are you sure that-"

"I'M FINE, DAMMIT!"

Chisame practically jumped backward as Evangeline sprang upright, throwing off the blankets. There was a clatter as Chisame backed into the door, inadvertently slamming it shut. Her eyes were clamped shut, as if it would somehow protect her from the wrath that was inevitably about to descend upon her. But it didn't. She hesitatingly opened her eyes, and her momentary fear evaporated as she saw Evangeline.

She had never seen Evangeline in this state before. The vampire girl's nightdress clung loosely to her body, drenched with cold sweat. Her hands trembled as they clasped the edges of the blanket. Her body shivered as she breathed in a series of shallow gasps. She glared at Chisame with red-rimmed eyes, trying her hardest to terrify the girl into backing out of the room.

But it failed. Something had sucked all the intimidation out of her. Chisame took a step forward. She had finally put her finger on what was so different. The girl in the bed was different from the terrifying sorceress that she was used to visiting. Chisame wasn't looking at the infamous Dark Evangel; she was looking at a ten-year-old girl who was trying her hardest to be threatening.

Any other time Chisame visited, Evangeline had had the act down; she was usually the immortal Queen of Darkness who just so happened to be caught in the body of a child. But something had broken her façade. It was almost impossible to believe that this was the same girl who had terrorized the magic world and subjected her classmates to that hellish training. It was totally impossible for Chisame to be frightened now. She strode forward and took a seat on the edge of the bed.

"There's no way that you're okay," Chisame said. She reached out a hand and laid it gingerly on Eva's shoulder. "I can tell. Can't you just tell me what's wrong?"

"...No." The word sounded as if it was stuck in Evangeline's throat. She curled herself up, hugging her legs and pressing her face into her knees. "Just go away..."

Part of Chisame wanted to obey, to get out and not have to deal with whatever was going on. But there was another tiny voice in the back of her head that forced her to stay. Chachamaru was right; something had reduced the boogeyman of the Magic World to a trembling little girl who looked afraid to leave her bed. Against all expectation, Chisame felt sorry for the girl.

"I'm not going anywhere until you tell me why you're..." She paused, not sure now to continue. "...like this. Listen, I realize that this is going to sound ridiculous coming from me of all people, but I'm worried about you. You aren't acting like yourself and I don't know why. I mean you're..." Chisame swallowed, barely believing what she was about to say. "You're my friend, okay? You're my friend, and it sucks having to see you like this. At the very least, can you just tell me what's wrong? I promise I won't tell anyone. Please."

"Fine."

"Huh?" Chisame leaned in, unsure of what she had heard.

"I'll tell you."

"R-really?" Chisame asked. She had expected more resistance.

Evangeline lifted her head enough for Chisame to see her eyes.

"I'll tell you, but you can't tell anyone else, okay?"

Chisame nodded.

"Okay."

Evangeline closed her eyes and took a deep breath. Her voice sounded incredibly small as she laboriously forced the words out of her mouth.

"It's...it's my birthday."

"Huh?" Chisame couldn't think of anything else to say. Of all the possible responses that she could have gotten, that was quite far down the list of things that she had anticipated. It was so random and seemingly unrelated to anything that it bordered on absurd.

"Of course..." Eva mumbled. "You wouldn't know...I thought that one of them would have spilled it by now. I can't believe no one ever told you..."

"Told me what?"

"About how I became a vampire. Or when, I guess. I'm still not quite sure how it happened."

Chisame bit her lip. There were a multitude of questions bombarding her mind, but this wasn't the time to ask anything. All she could do was stare at Evangeline as she continued the story with a labored, uneven voice.

"I was turned on the night before my tenth birthday. I don't really remember any of it. I went to bed like I usually did, but when I..." She began to sputter; the words were sticking in her throat. "...when I woke up..."

Evangeline shivered as she turned away, clamping her eyes shut. She put a hand to her face to wipe away the tears that were starting to leak from her eyes. Her whole body shook as she swallowed, trying to fight the lump in her throat.

"Th-there was blood everywhere. I didn't know what had happened. I saw my parents. They...they were just lying there...there was so much blood...I-I must have..." She opened her eyes. Tears began to trickle down her cheeks as she stared at her hands. "The blood...was - it was on my hands...on my face...in my mouth...I can - I can still taste it..."

Chisame searched her mind frantically for something, anything that she could say. It was hopeless. What was a middle school student supposed to be able to do? She took a deep breath and slid her arm around the girl, giving her a gentle squeeze. With a strangled cry, Evangeline crumpled into Chisame's arms, sobbing into her shoulder.

"I miss them...I miss them...so much..."

* * *

The next day, Evangeline slowly stumbled her way down the stairs from her room into the kitchen. She still felt horrible, but today it was less due to inner turmoil and more due to the fact that she had a splitting headache. Chachamaru was bustling around the kitchen putting breakfast together. She stopped as Evangeline shuffled to the table.

"Oh, good morning, Mistress. Are you feeling better today?"

"I guess..." Eva groaned as she slumped into one of the chairs. She cocked her head to the side as she noticed the presence of a gift-wrapped package on the middle of the table, with an envelope resting on top of it. "What's that thing?"

"Chisame dropped it off this morning. She said it was for you."

"I see," Evangeline said as she snatched the envelope off the top of the package. She sliced it open with a fingernail and withdrew a card. Adorning the front of the card was the image of an exceptionally fluffy kitten wearing a party hat. She opened it to see a hastily scribbled note, just neat enough to be considered legible. She took a deep breath and began to read.

_I have no idea what I should write, but after yesterday I felt like I had to do something. I can't even begin to understand all the crap that you've been through, but I figured I could try to make this birthday suck a little bit less than your others. Happy Birthday, Eva. I hope you can at least enjoy it a little._

_Chisame_

_P.S. Sorry I couldn't get you a better card or present. It was all I could come up with on such short notice._

Evangeline hurriedly wiped a tear out of the corner of her eye before Chachamaru could notice. She stuffed the card back into the envelope and began to peel the wrapping paper off of the package.

"What is it?" Chachamaru asked.

"Cupcakes."

"Really?" Chachamaru peered into the now-open box, which did indeed contain a dozen chocolate cupcakes. "It was certainly nice of Chisame to bring you these."

"Yeah." Eva reached into the box, withdrew one of the cupcakes, and began to unwrap it. "I guess it was." She smiled for the first time that day before taking a bite.

* * *

**Chapter 8.3: Chisame and Rakan**

"You BITCH!" Chisame burst into her room and thrust an accusing finger at Asakura, who was busy rummaging through a drawer.

"Huh?" Asakura turned around, barely even phased by the fact that Chisame was quite obviously on the verge of attacking. She began to talk in a tone of voice not unlike a small child who had been caught with her hand in the cookie jar. "What did I ever do to you to merit this degree of aggression?"

"Don't act innocent! You know exactly what you did!" Chisame shouted. She grabbed Asakura with one hand, and thrust a copy of _The Mundus Lyre_ in her face with the other. "You did this!"

"Oh, right," Asakura said with an air of mock forgetfulness. Most of the front page was covered by a rather large photograph depicting Chisame and Jack Rakan, both dressed formally, sitting at a table in a popular Ostian restaurant well-known for its romantic atmosphere. The remainder of the page was filled with the massive headline "HERO AND IDOL: THE PERFECT COUPLE".

"I only went because the food was awesome and he offered to pay for it!" Chisame fumed. "It wasn't like we were on a date or anything! I've wanted to go to that restaurant ever since I heard about it. That's it."

"Please, don't even try that. I know all about you two." Asakura scoffed. "My room is right next to this one. I can hear both of you clear as day." She snorted as she tried to hold in a laugh. "How did it go again? 'Rakan Victory Press! Tooth of the Serpent!'" Asakura gave Chisame a sideways glance. "You kept me up until like three in the morning last night."

"Shut up," Chisame barked. Her faced was growing redder by the second. "It's not my fault that his ridiculous naming convention extends to his...techniques."

"But seriously, 'Rakan Penetrating Fang of a Thousand Hammers'? What does that even entail?"

"Shut up!" Chisame's eye began to twitch as she spoke. "I still want to know why you went and did this!" She held up the tabloid.

"Although, I guess I should be proud of you. Most girls wouldn't even be able to survive doing _that_ with him. You're familiar with Larry Niven, right? He wrote this essay about-"

"Stop trying to change the subject, dammit!" Chisame screeched as she slammed the paper down on the table. "Why the hell did you publish this!-? You know that we're trying to keep the whole thing under wraps!"

"'We'?" Asakura asked. "I was under the impression that Jack couldn't care less about this sort of thing."

"He doesn't, but he still agreed to keep it a secret!" Chisame said. "Why would you go and print something like that?"

"I'm sorry! It was just like _the_ perfect demi-human interest story!" Asakura answered. "I mean, ever since the whole 'saving the world' thing, Old World culture has been getting more and more popular! I mean, the Old World's most popular internet idol hooking up with one of Mundus Magicus' most famous heroes? That story practically prints money! I couldn't not do it!"

"I don't care! You've crossed the line from journalism to espionage! You have no sense of respect of people's privacy whatsoever!"

"What are you talking about? Of course I respect your privacy!"

"Is that why I came back to my apartment to find you digging through my underwear drawer?"

"Huh?" Asakura stared blankly at Chisame for a moment before looking down at the pile of panties that she had scattered across the floor. "Oh, that. I-uh...well, okay, I got a tip from an anonymous source, and I was investigating it. I should probably be going now."

"Yes, you probably should," Chisame said, folding her arms.

"Can I at least use the bathroom first?"

"Fine, just don't go digging around in any of the drawers or cabinets okay? And believe me, I'll know."

"Yeah, yeah, fine." Asakura wagged a hand at Chisame before disappearing into the bathroom.

"Dammit." Chisame rolled her eyes before stooping over to start picking up the underwear that Asakura had left everywhere. "One of these days I'm going to get my revenge on that girl," she whispered to herself. As she reached for another pair of panties, she heard the sound of a loud thud from outside. Then another. She looked up at the glass of water that was sitting on the dresser. The top of the water rippled ominously. "Oh crap, why does he have to show up _now?_"

"HONEY, I'M HOME!"

The entire building shook as the door flew open with enough force to leave an imprint on the brick wall behind it. Rakan breezed through the open aperture. As he saw Chisame, his face broke into a wide grin.

"Hey, girly! I gotta be down at the docks to christen a new airship in like an hour. We got time for some lovin' before I head out!"

"Not now, dammit!" Chisame shouted. She put her hands to her head, fighting the urge to pull out clumps of hair. Rakan was apparently oblivious to her consternation. Either that or he simply didn't see that as any reason not to do a bunch of hip thrusts.

"So what technique do you want me to do this time? Rakan's Tower Dance? Rakan Third Leg Kick? Or I could whip up a new-"

Chisame silenced the man with a flying knee to the face.

"Not in the mood, you jackass," Chisame said. "Asakura's in the bathroom now. No way am I getting it on with her even remotely nearby. When I got back, she was going through my-"

"Oh, that reminds me of something," Rakan said. Chisame grimaced as he shoved a hand into his pants and began to rummage around. "Take a look at this!" He whipped out a crumply newspaper. Chisame groaned. It was the same issue of the_ Lyre_ that Asakura had contributed to. "We made the front page! That's my...let's see...my 512th front page headline! I only need 87 more before I catch up to Nagi. He got a good head start back during the war, but every since he disappeared I've been catching up!"

"I thought you agreed that we were going to keep our little thing a secret!"

"Well, everybody around here knows anyway, so was only a matter of time before somebody blabbed. You'll get used to it eventually. Figured it was better to get that crap out of the way."

"Wait a minute-" Chisame said through gritted teeth. "You had a part in this, didn't you?"

Rakan's eyes darted back and forth for a moment before he answered the most overly emphatic voice he could muster.

"I have no idea what you're talking about!"

Chisame shook her head as she picked up her copy of the paper and gave the relevant article a closer look.

"What the hell!-? Why are you listed as a contributor!-?"

Rakan shrugged as he looked away.

"She knows the publisher. Told me she'd get me another half-dozen cover pages if I let the story go through."

"But why did you help her!-?" Chisame shouted. She glanced back at the paper. "You gave her a freaking interview!"

"She was gonna write the story anyway, so I figured I might as well give her a hand with it."

"You are such an idiot!" Chisame groaned. "Don't you realize what this- of course you don't know what that means. You're all well and good with the publicity, but what about me!-? I'm not going to be able to even go outside now without the magic paparazzi showing up everywhere!"

"Eh, they're not such a big deal," Rakan said with a shrug. "All you gotta do is just bust up their cameras and they'll leave you alone. I mean, just fart real good and it'll knock out all their equipment and they'll stay away for a while."

"No way in hell am I doing that! I'm a girl! Do you realize how big of a disaster it would be if they reported something like that!-? N-not that I would even be capable of such a disgusting thing..."

"I dunno about that, sometimes when you hit the can you've let out some winners." Jack gave a hearty laugh. "Like a tuba! Thpbbpbbpbbb-"

Once again, Chisame was forced to put an end to the stupidity via a knee to the face.

"Speaking of which…" Jack continued, rubbing the side of his head, "…isn't that girl still in the bathroom. She must have gotten some bad Mexican food or something."

"Mexican? There isn't any Mexico in this world! How is there Mexican food?"

"Somebody opened up a place down the road. Stuff from your world is getting pretty popular now. I was down there last week. Nice and spicy! Gotta be careful about that though. Burns just as much comin' out as it does goin' in."

"So it was you who destroyed the toilet!" Chisame said. She felt only a brief flash of surprise before realizing that it was really the only logical explanation for the fact that roughly a week ago her toilet had mysteriously melted. "You know what? You should just go. I'm starting to get a headache. I can't deal with this right now!"

"So no action?" Rakan said, once again beginning to do hip thrusts.

"No. No action." Chisame groaned. She didn't even want to bother kneeing him in the head again. It probably wouldn't help. "Maybe later. Just get out. I can't deal with both of you idiots at the same time." She attempted to shove him towards the door, but he utterly failed to move. "Out! Go!"

"Fine, fine. We'll just do it twice tomorrow."

"Whatever, just go!"

Chisame's eye twitched as she watched Jack amble out of the apartment. She grabbed the doorknob with the intent to close the door after him, but found it so embedded in the wall that she couldn't budge it. She put a foot against the wall next to the door and pulled with all the strength she could muster. The door popped free of the wall with a dull crunch. She sighed. Now she just had to get Asakura out and she would finally have some time to herself. Speaking of Asakura...

Chisame could hear a low sound coming through the bathroom door. As she moved closer, she could make out the familiar sound of Asakura's psychotic laughter. The only time she ever laughed like that was when something made her very, very happy.

_What the heck is she laughing about? There's nothing in the bathroom that she'd be interested in. Just the cabinet full of toilet paper, my tooth brush, and the trash ca- oh shit._

She pounded on the door.

"What the hell are you doing in there? You were snooping around in the cabinets, weren't you?"

Her assault on the bathroom stopped as she heard the click of the door being unlocked. It opened with a slow creak, revealing Asakura. The look on her face was that of a person who had just won the lottery. Or several lotteries.

"No, no, I didn't look in any cabinets," she said. "I was just taking my time, listening to you guys putting on your show."

"Is that what you're so happy about?"

"Oh, no. That was just some entertainment. Nothing I could write a decent story about. No, I'm happy because I noticed something in the bottom of your trash can..." Chisame's face went white as paper as Asakura held up a small, white, plastic stick. "This is yours, isn't it?"

Chisame bit her lip and forced herself to nod. The smile on Asakura's face became even more impossibly wide. She glanced at the object in her hand, noting the markings on it.

"Looks like it's positive," Asakura said. She reached a hand and put it on Chisame's shoulder. "I suppose congratulations are in order..._Mom._"

* * *

.

* * *

Okay, first off, I apologize for only having three sections. I had originally planned for four, but it ended up taking so long that I decided to just leave it at three because otherwise it would be _another_ week before I updated. Also, I think the chapter is long enough as is. I realize that there really isn't too much shipping-esque interaction with Chisame in the chapter as a whole. I intended there to be a more "normal" shipping story in there that was a more basic "Chisame and X" kind of thing, but it got cut for time. Maybe next time.

**8.1: **Okay I realize that Chisame technically doesn't appear at all in this section, and that it's really long, but the story sort of spiraled out of control. I had originally intended for the "underwear analysis" thing to just be a brief joke, but the ideas just kept coming and it ended up being the focal point of the section. I found it amusing and I liked the way the whole thing got sort of blown out of proportion. Looking back on it, I probably should have tried to reduce the number of characters. Yue and Nodoka don't _really_ need to be there, but I didn't feel like rewriting the entire section. And we got Haruna flipping up Nodoka's skirt out of it, so it wasn't all bad.

**8.2:** This was the hardest section to write, mainly because it was intensely difficult to balance. On one hand, Eva's past is pretty damn traumatizing, but on the other hand, I really wanted to avoid any extreme melodrama. I think it works out okay, although it's probably a bit of a whiplash after the absurdity of section one. On another note, when I posted this section on the TVtropes Negima fanfiction board, it inspired a brief compilation fic on the Ala Iridia account, called _Eva's Birthday Notes_. So go check that out.

**8.3:** Okay, I know this doesn't live up to all the expectations for Chisame/Rakan. It's by far the most requested pairing, so hopefully at least a few people like how I've handled it. Also, I discovered that Rakan is actually really tough to write correctly. Outside of his over-the-topness, there's a certain vibe he gives off, and I'm not sure that I quite nailed it. The story will obviously continue, but I liked ending it where I did. ;p

Anyway, I hope you guys enjoyed this. Reviews are very much appreciated, as always.

Thanks for reading!


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